Ororo's Deathbed
by Viral
Summary: Ororo's life is threatened by a mysterious illness, and the secrets of a friend can only make things more melancholy. Action, romance, and suspense.
1. Default Chapter

Ororo's Deathbed  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Storm or any of the other X-Men. This is purely a non-profit story used to express the admiration a fan and his try at creativity. This is my first fan fiction in a long time, so we'll see how it turns out. There's a hint of romance, a bit of action, and a different type of story.  
  
"Storm, are you sure you can take on this responsibility? Lately you have seemed a bit weary and physically ill," Professor Charles Xavier asked Storm with concerned blue eyes. This crippled professor was now the home chief commander of the greatest fighter for mutants and the peaceful coexistence between both homosapiens and homosuperiors.  
  
"Yes, I can do this. Thank you for your concern Charles, but my duties call me to lead the team. While Scott is on his leave of absence from the team I must take control. Who else would be readily equipped? Trust me," Ororo said with brown eyes just as focused on Xavier as his were on her. Her caramel brown skin was not at all its normal color; it seemed a bit red but her heat did not give any clue of illness. Perhaps it was her mutant abilities, which not only included control of the weather, but also immunity to extreme heat and cold.  
  
"Ororo, I am well aware that you are capable of leading the team to victory, but I am not so confident in your judgment. You should be getting rest," Xavier said as he came from behind his oak desk in his electrically controlled wheelchair. "But I know I will not be able to deter you from your convictions as the field commander of the X-Men, so I will grant you what you ask for. Just be careful and don't over exhaust yourself."  
  
Storm stands in response to the Professor's comments and her white hair flings up behind her in one, long ponytail. "Thank you, Charles. You will be pleased with the team's success on the field. When shall you be calling the team to the war room?"  
  
"I'll give you five minutes to prepare yourself," he answers, still with concerned eyes looking to Storm who is towering above him now while she stands.  
  
She leaves the office with a nod and closes the door behind her. She walks towards the elevator in a quick stride, bypassing many people without saying a word. The Institute was extremely large but was becoming quite crowded with all the new recruits and successes of Xavier. She still kept her integrity and mother-like qualities and watched over the younger mutants, but stayed with the core group most of the time.  
  
Now in her upper twenties, she began to think more and more about her future. She was also sure that Xavier was looking around her mind once she began to doubt her role in the X-Men and if it was her destiny to remain with them. But now she excused herself from those thoughts as she prepared to lead the X-Men into yet another battle. Stepping into the empty elevator she pushed the button to the 2nd floor, not feeling the ambition to take the staircase. Not realizing how severe it was, Ororo let out a strong sneeze followed by a whim of coughs, spewing mucus onto her hands. She looked down to it with disgust against her formerly clean display of beauty and pulls a prepared tissue from her jean-skirt pocket and wiped away the disgusting nose product.  
  
Making her way quickly to her bedroom, she releases her tight tank top shirt before noticing that Gambit was laying on her bed reading a series of Storm's personal diary entries. "Remy!" she yells to the red-eyed Cajun as he looks up to her with that familiar smirk on his face. Out of instinct a gust of wind blows him off her bed with a lamp, pillows, and a coffee table.  
  
Gambit lands with a thud, then slowly pokes his head above the mattress. "You act like Remy never been in yo'r bed befo', chere," he jokes with Storm. Her shirt is now covering her upper body as she watches him with anger in her white eyes. "De Cajun just jokin', beau."  
  
"Gambit, you have never been invited in my room! Why are you here?" Storm fumes as a feel of static begins to fill the room.  
  
The smirk leaves his face as he stands and walks towards Storm, "I'm worried about you, Stormy. De deif know when you sick. And de way it look, you leave de X-Men like Scott too?"  
  
"Gambit, get out! You have no business here and in my personal writings! Get out!" Storm yells, never having to show such anger at her own teammate before.  
  
"I sorry, Stormy," he says as he kisses her upon her forehead. As before, her body temperature does not match the way her skin is turning red under the caramel color and the constant coughing and sneezing. This was the first time Storm had ever felt the lips of Gambit on her, and she was almost willing to kiss him back. Feeling a steamy hint of intimacy, she looked into his red eyes and slowly her face etched towards his.  
  
Storm, Wolverine, Jean, Gambit, Rogue, and Beast report to the war room and prepare to suit up Xavier says over the intercom with urgency in his voice. This was the only thing that took Storm's mind off of the sensual taste, the luring red eyes, and romantic charm of Gambit as she dodged his lips and walked around him, now facing his back and the door.  
  
"Please leave, Gambit. I must prepare myself," she says as he walks out and closes the door behind him with no words to say.  
  
She sits at the vanity in her private bathroom and applies lip-gloss to her lips and redoes her ponytail. She notices the gray look in her eyes, while she is not in use of her abilities. Perhaps Xavier was right about her being sick. She remembered only getting this color in her eyes when she was experience the flu or a cold such as that. Nothing major should happen and the possibilities of disturbing her on the battlefield were extremely minimal. She completed her glamour with putting on her first, original X- Men costume. Many of the core group of X-Men were throwing away the new attire style and using their originals to stay intact. These new changes and new recruits came in like a flash flood, and the family feeling was escaping the team quickly.  
  
Storm completes her preparation as she leaves the room with a locked door behind her and a run towards the elevator as she saw the doors closing. Reaching the elevator doors, finally, the passengers were already down to the first floor. "Ororo, need a ride to the sub-basement?" Kitty Pryde says as she comes behind Storm with happy blue eyes.  
  
"Thank you, Kitty," Ororo says as she places her hands on Kitty's shoulders and the two phase through the floors in the speed of the elevator and slowly phase in on the sub-basement level.  
  
"Anytime," Kitty says with a smile and Storm gives her a warm hug before making her way towards the war room. By the time she reached the war room, Jean and Beast were already there and suited up. Only seconds behind her follow Gambit, Rogue, and Wolverine.  
  
Xavier looks to everyone as all are seated around the circular table, "Storm will be first in command, followed by Jean in second command. Obviously, the sentinel conspirators are having a problem understanding that creating Sentinels is now illegal and in alliance with the Friends of Humanity they are planning on attacking a shelter for mutants. I need you to get there as quickly as possible and prevent them from ever harming anyone inside. There are helpless mutants inside who could die from this hatred."  
  
"Team, report to the Blackbird immediately," Ororo commands as the team exits quickly and she looks to Xavier, "I shall be fine." Storm joins the team and takes the pilot seat with Beast at her side as the co-pilot. Although small, the team was more than capable of handling the sentinels and a bunch of close-minded men. Almost immediately the team is in the air and moments later are landed in a clearing only a few yards away from the shelter.  
  
As usual, Gambit joked the entire way there, Wolverine grunted in annoyance, Rogue threatened Gambit's existence, Jean kept her mind open for messages from Xavier, and Beast made observation remarks of the group. But unusually, Storm did not join in any conversation. She instead flew by the side of Rogue with white eyes and thoughts on her future once more.  
  
And to add more unusual history to the situation, a heavy sneeze blew from Storm's knows which was accompanied by a roll of thunder and Storm doing a front-flip in the air and nearly tumbling into the ground if not caught by Beast. "Ororo, you seem a bit ill. Are you sure you can handle this?"  
  
"Yes, I am positive in my capabilities. Thank you for your concern Hank," Storm answers as she takes flight once more. After those events the team remains quiet until they reach the shelter.  
  
Once they reach the entrance, "I shall remain aloft in the clouds with Rogue. Jean and Hank shall find a hiding place in a nearby tree. Gambit and Wolverine, you two may find hiding in the shrubbery around the building. We do not want to arouse suspicion before they arrive. Remember, this is an ambush," Ororo commands before taking flight and laying on the rifts of the air above the heavy, white clouds.  
  
"Storm, now ya know ah been fightin' along ya side for a long time. Ah don't doubt yah abilities tah handle this, but ah don't think ya should be out here, sugah. Ah never seen ya so sick where ya can't even control yah powers right," Rogue says as they wait in the air for the first sign of threat to the shelter.  
  
"With Scott gone, it is my responsibility to lead the team. I cannot sacrifice my responsibilities and discard them, easily. The team is depending on me while Scott is on his leave of absence," Storm says with confidence.  
  
"Yeah, of course we're countin' on ya. Countin' on ya to be in good health," Rogue follows-up.  
  
"Now is no longer the time to discuss this," Storm says as she points to the approaching black objects coming from the direction of the sun. She tapped the communicator, which was now on her waist, X-Men, the sentinels are no arriving from the West and there is a swarm of motorbikes coming from the East. We must not let them near the shelter for a battle anywhere near would also be devastating. Take them down now and drive them toward the clearing.  
  
Storm, Rogue, and Gambit direct themselves in the direction of the sentinels, as the metal monstrosities began to lose altitude. A bolt of lightning is the first attack of many before a number of cards are flung in the air at the sentinels. Rogue rams her armor-covered body into a Sentinel as its peaces fall onto the traffic below and people below point upwards at the lightshow that the lightning was now creating.  
  
"Follow the bait," Rogue says in her southern tune as the sentinel's identify the three as mutants and follow them towards the clearing.  
  
Meanwhile, Jean has taking the bolts out of the motorcycles and the wheels on every bike has fallen apart. Now, merely dealing with the threat of high energy weapons, the F.O.H. members have also been drawn into the clearing as well.  
  
Storm remains aloft in the air through most of the battle as lightning surrounds her body and sentinels malfunction and fall from the sky in a repeated frenzy. In a moment of pause she lets out a heavy sneeze, which again is accompanied by a loud thunder, but this time her body is sent flinging through the air like a rag doll and into a large oak tree.  
  
"STORM!" Wolverine yells with worried blue eyes as his science-generated claws slice through a rifle and he runs towards the tree where Storm has crash-landed.  
  
Storm shakes her head after her short lacuna, and regains composure as she notices Wolverine running towards him. "I am fine, Logan," she says with white eyes. Just then her eyes widen as a gust of wind knocks Wolverine to the ground and a bullet just misses the blue-haired runt.  
  
Wolverine gets back with a growl as he runs towards his would-be assailant with lashing claws. Storm once again takes flight towards the sentinels as they prepare their energy weapons to fire at an unsuspecting Beast. But her plants are not followed due to a series of coughs, hives on her skin, and another sneeze, which is muffled by a thunder and a tornado that hangs in the air but never touches the ground. The Windrider is sent falling out of the sky, once more, but this time more devastating than before. Her eyes are closed and her ponytail is loosened and her hair is now lashing out in every direction. Landing in a pile of thorn-covered shrubbery her body begins to shiver and a series of hives began to cover her caramel skin.  
  
"Stormy!" Gambit yells as he runs towards her in fear of the worse. Wolverine follows just as quickly while the other X-men are left to deal with the over-powering menace of the sentinels. "Ororo!"  
  
To be continued. 


	2. [2]

Ororo's Deathbed [2]  
  
Author's Notes: We see a bit of Remy/Ororo in [1]. Now we see a bit of Logan/Ororo in [2]. Still rated PG, merely for weak violence. Beside character development, the plot unravels a bit too, but is still extremely vague.  
  
...Continued  
  
Storm's body flew through the air, aloft on the winds, with her white eyes gazing around with freedom. Under the white clouds were the beautiful surroundings of her African pride lands. Her white hair flowed freely and her body was not encased in an X-Men tainted uniform, which forbade her to escape the laws of a peaceful cause. Instead she was clad in a rag-like two- piece garment, which displayed her legs, arms, and stomach area. Her eyes remained a white freedom even as she began to lose altitude and her heart began pounding. "Winds why do you fail me? I have not yet commanded you to loosen your grip! By the--!" she exclaimed as her body fell into a dark void only illuminated in part by swarming lime-green slug creatures. Feeling extremely closed in she shut her eyes tight as her body squirmed around in a frenzy to escape.  
  
Then her eyes opened and the pounding of her heart became a reality. There she lay in medical lab, tied down tight with an anesthetic constantly pumping in her arm to calm her raging abilities and to keep her from demolishing the entire building in her sleep. "Jean! Hank! Someone let me out!" Ororo cried in fear as she looked around and saw no one in the brightly lit room. Why would they leave her here? Alone? Knowing her fear of claustrophobia would easily creep up since she could not move from under the binds of the flat examination table.  
  
Her bottom lip, which was now dry with no signs of the formerly applied lip- gloss, was now tucked inside her mouth as she fought away the nervous sweat and the tears that tried to form in her eyes. "Is anyone here!" she yelled in agony right before hearing the swish of the automatic door open. She turned to see a man of short stature and an odd haircut. "Logan! Let me out, please!" she said, almost becoming hysterical as the thoughts from her short dream of entrapment began to creep up inside her mind.  
  
Wolverine rushed over to the table where she laid and placed down a cup of water nearby. "I'm sorry fer leavin' ya 'Ro," Logan says in the softest tone as he releases the latches, which held her down. Immediately after, she removed the anesthetic pump from her arm and shoved it away. "Here, take a drink of this," he says with blue eyes that resembled Xavier's. He picked up the ice-cold cup of water and handed it to Storm. She reluctantly took a sip of it as she sighed and continued to breathe deeply.  
  
"Logan," she begins but does not complete. Her brown eyes almost look like they might cry, but it would be impossible for the Windrider to cry. Only two accounts have been reported in her past. Would she create a third now. Was this her moment of emotional weakness? And was Wolverine the only one there to comfort her?  
  
"'Ro, what's the matter?" he says as he sits on the flat table next to her and wraps a strong arm around her shoulder. She leans her head on his shoulder, entirely forgetting the event with Gambit only hours before.  
  
"Logan, I am afraid," she says finally after a moment of silence. "I do not understand why, but my body is aching terribly and my eyes act as if they do not want to open. My skin is dancing with hives and I can feel myself losing the connection with nature."  
  
"Ya' can't be, 'Ro. It's yer power. Ya' just can't lose that connection, otherwise our problems would be solved. And all the other stuff is just exhaustion, you'll be okay," Logan answers with a sound of confidence in his voice.  
  
Storm lifts her head from his shoulder and scoots down on the table. She then turns to face him. He is dressed in a pair of blue jeans and a skin- tight black shirt. She is still clad in her tattered X-Men uniform. "You do not understand. I am not losing my mutant powers. I am losing my connection with the planet. Before, I was able to sense every weather pattern, every air movement, every flood, every thunderstorm, rainstorm, heat wave. Now, I can hardly sense what is happening in the sky right above this mansion. Logan, I am losing control and I do not know why!"  
  
"Ya' just need yer rest," Logan says as he stands up and offers a hairy hand to Storm. She takes his massive hand into her own, thin, feminine hand. Her right hand was now in his right hand and his left arm was wrapped around her shoulder.  
  
"I pray that you are right," she says, feeling safe in his arms as they walked towards the elevator. While waiting for the elevator to come, neither of them said a word. After entering though, Storm immediately asked him, "I trust since you are alive, we gained victory today?"  
  
"Barely. Yer tornado sent the sentinels and F.O.H. flying in every direction, not to mention the local businesses," Logan says with factuality in his voice but also with a spirit of jest.  
  
"That is not good," Ororo says with concerned eyes before pushing Wolverine away from her. Caught off guard, he was slammed into the elevator wall. Before he had the chance to ask, his question had been answered. Another sneeze erupted from Storm's nose followed by a long series of coughs.  
  
"'Ro, you okay?" Logan finally asks after the coughs and sneezing stop. But before she had the opportunity to answer, they were on the second floor of the Institute with numerous pairs of eyes looking oddly and curiously at Storm through opened elevator doors.  
  
Without looking to see who was watching her, Ororo exited the elevator with glazed eyes and a quick pace. This reminded some of the older members of Ororo's first arrival to the X-Men. After the long battle against the island Krakoa she had gained custody of the attic to make into her private green house and still had her own bedroom. She expected much and received much. Logan quickly scurried behind her with mean eyes on the spectators as he finally caught up to her as she literally zapped open the knob to her bedroom.  
  
"Gambit!" was the first thing that was heard before electricity surrounded her body and the room door flung open, almost off its hinges, "I told you that you were not allowed in here!"  
  
"'Ro, ya need yer rest," Logan says, attempting to calm her as he takes matters into his own hands and grips Gambit by his trench coat before the swamp rat has a chance to reply. Gambit and Logan are outside of Storm's room in a frenzy of noise. Instead of responding any further to the situation, Storm walks to her balcony, a gust of wind following her and knocking down objects in her room, including expensive electrically equipment. It was as if she was blind to the fact that she was destroying her own things.  
  
With another uproar of wind Ororo's body was in the air and off of the balcony. She made her way to the roof where there was a glass-door entrance to the attic. She entered her greenhouse, able to withstand the heat due to her immunity to heat and cold. Her brown eyes closed as she landed neatly upon a futon located amongst the green plants. Her closed eyes clamped tight as short glances of a dark, closed space surfaced in her mind and she opened her eyes, looking up through the glass ceiling of the attic and onto the evening sky.  
  
Her mind began to wander on the subjects that had given her the most trouble and mental strain lately. Her place with the X-Men was becoming a myth, a comic book story almost. She thought to herself in continual ramblings:  
  
I feel myself drawn back to home so dearly, and yet I deny myself the opportunity to go because I am loved here. I am only worshipped back at home because of what I can do for them. Or is it perhaps, that I am loved in both places but I only feel that I am giving my love to the X-Men? Maybe it is not the X-Men, but a certain X-Man. Do I feel drawn to Remy? Those red eyes entrap me so quickly and the experiences we had while I was a child and he was a thief in the old days are forever a spell to his charm. Or is it Logan? I felt safe in his arms, like I could be held onto forever with him and. oh by the heavens! I cannot make up my mind! What. who. do I want?  
  
But before that question could be answered in the Windrider's own thoughts her body fell to the floor off of the futon and she began to cough considerably loud. "Why?!" she continued to yell over her coughs as they became chokes and gasps for air. Her face was turning red, even over her caramel tone. "I cannot breathe!" she yells as she pounds hard against the carpeted floor with her hands and her gasps for air are followed by continual coughs, "Let me breathe!" 


	3. [3]

Ororo's Deathbed  
  
Author's Notes: Now you can make assumptions on the plot as it slowly unravels more than ever before.  
  
Gambit flips onto the roof from the support of his rod, and with the flowing of his brown trench coat on his back he becomes a shadow under the going down of the sun. He slowly walks towards the glass door of the roof until he is pushed by a gust of wind. He stumbles inside the greenhouse that is maintained by Storm. He stands and sees Ororo pounding on the floor and begins to run towards her right when another gust of wind knocks him off his feet and he rolls on the carpeted floor and into a mass of pottery filled with plants.  
  
Once again, he looks to Ororo, and for a moment wonders why she would be knocking him over like that. Was she that serious about containing her privacy? He guessed not as he heard her screeches for air and noticed that the gusts of air were her struggle to force the oxygen into her lungs. He runs to her in a frenzy, this time watching for the current of air being pulled in by Storm and then falls to his knees at her side. "C'mon, de Cajun not see you die. Calm down, Stormy, and you breathe," he says, attempting to soothe her.  
  
She obviously takes heed to his wisdom as she ceases to act wildly and her chest slowly began to heave up and down again as she began to intake air once more. The hives on her arms were now large, red bumps and her eyes no longer turned back to their normal color. They remained fully white, her brown iris completely hidden behind the foggy gaze in her eyes. "Remy, what is happening to me? Why could I not breathe?" she questions, knowing he would not have an answer, but just hoping for a comforting word.  
  
"I dun know," he says as he stands up and takes her hand. He takes her over to the futon where the entire coughing catastrophe happened and lays her there, "I go get Jean up here to check you."  
  
"No, Gambit," Ororo whimpers, almost like a child afraid to be alone, "Do not leave me, I beg of you. I am extremely at the greatest of sorrows for expressing my anger towards you earlier. I must admit that my actions were not acceptable. And I apologize for Logan as well."  
  
"You not discourage Gambit, chere," he says with red eyes gazing to her white eyes and compassion on the soft smile that were made by his lips. He then changes the subject, still looking into her eyes, not knowing where her pupil was, but attempting to make eye contact none-the-less, "Stormy, why you thinkin' about leavin' us? We ya only family, chere."  
  
Storm turns her face towards the back of the futon where she looks at white, iron bars. She sighs, almost knowing he was going to ask her that. "Gambit, do you not understand? You have read into my inner soul and you still cannot see why I am contemplating this? I see no success in my future. I am forever grateful of this family and proud to be a member of the X-Men, but my concerns contain nothing of that matter. I want to begin my own family. I want to live a normal life, away from all of this action and these trials. I am glad to have fought for peace, but I have dreams I wish to fulfill."  
  
"If you go." he says but never finishes because his eyes are taken to the sound of feet coming up the stairs and to the attic. As the doorknob slowly turns Ororo's head also turns away from the iron bars and to the door. The next thing they saw was a red-haired woman carrying a tray of steamy soup accompanied with salted crackers, a glass of water, and a glass of Orange Juice.  
  
"Logan said I might find you up here," Jean Grey says as she places the tray down on a table and walks over towards Storm. "Hank will be up soon to check your temperature and try to find out exactly what's wrong with you." She places a soft hand to Storm's forehead and rubs it gently. "Your outer temperature is still normal. Your immunity could cause a disadvantage to such a sickness," she says, giving her own diagnosis. She removes her hand then looks to Gambit, "Dinner is done and everyone else is already eating. You should hurry and fix your plate before the students get their fingers on everything."  
  
Storm lets out a soft smile at Jean and Gambit as she begins to experience a cold sweat across her legs. She ignores it as Gambit speaks, "I'll be down in a second."  
  
Jean telekinetically lifts the table and moves it over to the futon where Storm is laying. "Whenever you're ready, this should do good for your appetite."  
  
"Thank you Jean," Ororo smiles with appreciation. Jean returns the smile before leaving the room with her green eyes.  
  
"You going to be okay, chere?" Gambit asks Storm in reference to him going down for something to eat.  
  
"I suppose so," Ororo smiles once more as she begins to sit up and face her food, "Since I know that you will be coming back I shall feel safe. Once you return we can finish our conversation," she completes. Gambit ponders giving her a kiss for a short second, but decides against it once he sees Ororo's face looking at her food and not giving Gambit any type of look.  
  
He makes his way down the staircase, which will take him to the second floor where he planned to catch the elevator. He turned the corner and immediately ran into Jean who had been waiting there for him. "Remy, would you like to go out to see a movie tonight?" she asked, without any type of words before that. She looked at him with emerald green eyes, in a tight black skirt, and an innocent look on her face.  
  
"What about Scott?" he asks in his familiar accent as they both walk towards the elevator.  
  
"What about him?" she answers in question form before continuing, "It's obvious he didn't love me enough to stay for me. Besides, I realized that his shades were more blinding to me than they were to him. Gambit, I'm really attracted to you," she finished, putting exclamation and emphasis on her 'really' more than anything she had said.  
  
"Sure. Just give me a few minutes after dinner to freshen up and tell Ororo," he says, finding himself attracted to that body and tight dress. Somehow, he couldn't keep Ororo off of his mind, though. As the elevator doors opened, Logan exited and the two of them entered. absolutely no words being said.  
  
Logan maintained a steady walk towards the attic with his loud mountain boots making thud noises across the wood mansion floor and was muffled by the occasional luxurious rugs. He opened the door to the attic steps and closed it behind him as he walked up the steps, knowing Storm would hear the constant thuds made by his heavy choice of footwear. "Storm?" he says, as he turns the doorknob and walks into the room.  
  
"Logan, should you not be eating dinner with the rest of them?" she asks him, surprised of his arrival into the attic. In the midst of space between her question and his answer she thinks to herself, 'None of them are making this decision easy for me.'  
  
"I already ate," he says with a grunt as he walks to the couch, which sits across from the futon. He takes his own liberty to sit there and looks across to Storm as she coughs away from her food and proceeds to eating the soup. "Did'ja get any rest, yet, 'Ro?" he asks her with his icy blue eyes.  
  
"No," she answers, "When I did attempt to do so I received a choking attack and nearly hyper ventilated myself to death."  
  
"You were never known to panic before." he says curiously.  
  
"I suppose this entire illness is playing mind games with me," she answers with a smile of insecurity on her face as she goes back to the soup.  
  
"What happened to your eyes?" he asks, wondering why they were remaining white and not changing back to their original color. He noticed that she was not in use of her mutant abilities and it bewildered him into a state of worrying.  
  
"Logan, please do not be alarmed," Ororo says, "I do not understand why they are remaining that way, but I trust they will return to their normal stage after some rest. Hopefully this cold will leave just as easily."  
  
"Yer getting' yer hopes up, 'Ro. This don't seem like the average cold," he says, before sniffing the air like he normally does. "You have iodine up here?"  
  
"No," she says, as she takes a sip of orange juice, "Perhaps Jean or Remy had placed some over one of their bruises."  
  
The door opened without the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs. This was obviously done with the skillful agility of the massive, blue-furred mutant who flipped into the room with medical attire and tools. "Ororo, I believe Jean told you I would be coming to do a few examinations," the Beast, as was his codename, said to her.  
  
"Yes, she did," Storm replied as she backed away from her food and to the back of the bed, placing her back against the artistically designed white iron bars of the daybed.  
  
"I can wait until you have finished your dinner," Henry 'Hank' McCoy says as he slowly walks his large blue feet over to the futon.  
  
"I am finished," she says as Hank pulls a thermometer from a sterile container. She opens her mouth slightly as he guides the thermometer under her tongue and she sits with her mouth closed.  
  
"I'm surprised yer done eatin' so fast, Hank," Logan says sarcastically from his place on the couch.  
  
Beast chuckles as he checks through his medical bag for a blood contractor. Once he finds the needle-tipped tool he tells Storm he would need to take some blood. She points to the exposed arm on her left, which isn't bandaged and then watches with a thermometer in her mouth as Beast draws her crimson red blood into the container. He then removes the thermometer and gives a perplexed look to Storm, "Once again, your mutant abilities are keeping your body at normal temperature. I guess your blood is going to be the only way to find out exactly how bad you're doing."  
  
Storm nods her head as Beast puts a small band-aid on her arm and she rests her head on a pillow with her white eyes focused on Logan who is sitting across the room. Her eyes close and then open slowly at the sound of Beast's voice, "I'll go check out this downstairs and then I'll know how to properly treat you, Ororo."  
  
"Thank you, Hank," she says, this time with no smile as exhaustion is plainly displayed on her face. Her eyes close and she coughs a number of times before finally beginning to breathe normal. Logan and Hank watched in amazement as they saw Storm seem so helpless in a situation such as this but yet able to survive the most dangerous of foes upon a battlefield.  
  
"From the words of W. Wordsworth, 'Three years she grew in the sun and shower; Then Nature said, "A lovelier flower has never sown: This child I to myself will take" '. Have a good night, Ororo," Hank says, with his normal archive of poems.  
  
Ororo smiles in gratification before Hank leaves the room. She snuggles her head against the pillow and her hair is goes in every direction. Just as it seems she has found the right spot for the night, she opens her eyes lightly and says with half of her mouth covered by the pillow, "Logan, let me feel your hand to know that you are with me."  
  
He almost smiles with glee as he jumps up from the chair speedily and takes Storm's hand in his. "I'm here darlin'," he says before putting his knees to the carpet and laying his head on the futon. Not exactly the most comfortable sleeping position, especially for a man with adamantium bones, but he dealt with it.  
  
Remy walks up the attic stairs only moments after they fall asleep, and notices Ororo and Logan hand-in-hand. He closes his eyes with a bit of remorse, knowing that could have been him holding Storm's hand. He thinks again, about giving her a kiss on her forehead, but knows Logan will awake and he doesn't think Storm needs the frustration of seeing them argue. He walks back down the stairs and meets with Jean.  
  
Just as Jean and Remy drive off, Hank examines a pinch of Storm's blood under a microscope after making a perfect DNA slide. He then looks over into his computer and a display of prints and hypothesis. "Just a wild virus," he says as he looks onto a list of antibiotics, which should help force out the virus. He then looks back into the microscope and gasps, "Iodine?" He zooms in on the slide under the microscope and then turns around back to the computer. "Dear God, how did Iodine get into her bloodstream?"  
  
To Be Continued.  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own or hold copyright information to the excerpt written by W. Wordsworth in this section of the story. I am also not making any money and am not aware of any illegal actions that can be held against this work. It's just a fan fiction. 


	4. [4]

Ororo's Deathbed  
  
Author's Notes: Sorry for the longer wait than usual. Sunday's is my busiest day and Saturday night was not so helpful either. But either way, the story has been continued with [4] and it should answer many questions you may have. It also includes some awaited action for the people who just love to hear "booms" and "bangs". Sorry, no romance this time. The story is being rushed a little faster than planned because vacation is coming up soon and I don't want to leave a 9-day cliffhanger just sitting there.  
  
. ..Continued  
  
"Hank, surely you are not suggesting that Jean has plotted to further Ororo's illness," Professor Charles Xavier said with bitter eyes and his fingers entwined as he thought a thousand thoughts.  
  
"Charles, I know that Jean shows so much love towards Ororo and the rest of the team that the hypothesis seems rather far-fetched, but what are the other possibilities?" Henry 'Hank' McCoy answered, while hanging vertical from the ceiling with his blue-furred feet.  
  
"We can take your thoughts into consideration," Xavier says as his eyes close and he searches around the Institute for Jean's brainwaves. He passed over the busy hallways filled with young students who found pleasure in sitting around and talking most of their days away and working on teenage romance relationships. Continuing to search the lower levels he found an older group of students training, truly wanting to find their place among the battlefield X-Men. He searched the minds that filled the bedrooms and still did not find his red head Marvel Girl. Taking one last step to the attic to search, he felt residue of her mental abilities, but not her mind. "She is not here and neither is Gambit. We shall speak to her when she returns, or perhaps tomorrow morning, whichever is more pleasant. For now I suggest you start giving Storm some antibiotics and anything that can flush out the Iodine. I pray that she will revive."  
  
"The odds are not on our side," Beast says as he does a front flip from the ceiling, and just like him and his mutant-enhanced agility, he lands firmly on the carpeted floor on both his massive feet. His blue eyes take a final look at Xavier before he exits the room and makes his way to the medical facilities located only a few steps down the hallway.  
  
"Hey Hank," Rogue says with her green eyes as she approaches the Beast in a fast pace. "Have you seen Jean?" she asks with her southern American accent.  
  
"Actually, I haven't. She has departed earlier with Gambit and I am unaware of the time to which they will return. In the meantime, I must attend to finding some antibiotics for our dear Ororo. It seems she has abducted Iodine into her bloodstream somehow."  
  
"Ahodine?" she questions in a surprised voice, disturbing the long i vowel in the word with her country twist and then looks away. She soon turns her face back to Hank with confusion, "How'd that get in there?"  
  
"Well, it seems, since it is having no deathly affects that it would have just been taken in by her body. Perhaps it was something she has eaten recently. This would be an easy problem to fix, except that she also has a virus. The virus seems to be advancing rather quickly and is resulting in her untimely illness," he explains to Rogue while just realizing himself the potential of the virus and the Iodine as they both are circulated in Storm's bloodstream. "Please excuse me Rogue, I must quickly develop the correct antibiotic for Ororo."  
  
Beast hurries to the medical tools while Rogue's green eyes open wide at the thought of Ororo's demise. Just then Rogue's eyes open wider as she hears a large rumble vibrate the entire mansion and then notices a large hole stemming from the Foyer to the Attic. She runs towards the hole and notices a feel of static electricity. Her hair is bulging outward now in some places and her clothes are clinging to her tighter than before. "A lightnin' bolt." she says to herself as she notices the summer air becoming extremely cold. "She's losin' it again."  
  
Her brown hair was whipped back in the air with her white streak as she took flight through the whole and soon met face-to-face with a thick pocket of hail and snow as it came pouring down the hole. Rogue was knocked back down but luckily was grabbed by the large, massive Caliban. "Rogue be careful. Storm mad," he warns with large black eyes. This former-Morlock and former accomplice of Apocalypse had finally found his home with the X- Men with many of the other Morlocks.  
  
Rogue looks to Caliban, "Thanks sugah, but if I don't get up there she's only gonna get a whole lot madder." Rogue looked around to the other new members, trying to think of some quick plan to get her upstairs as soon as possible without extending further damage to the X-Men. She was still one of the few that could take flight and would be the only one that could reach Storm right now. Just as she was beginning to think of a plan, she noticed the large head of Xavier in front of her face, projected by his mind.  
  
Speaking to her through his telepathy, he gave her direct commands, "Rogue, I will calm Storm's mind. Once you see the maelstrom clearing up you will be able to get her out of the sky. But do not attempt to absorb her energy to keep her calm. With her abilities you would run wild with no control and we don't need another maelstrom destroying all of New York." Rogue nods her head as she looks up to the sky where Storm is hovering with lightning surging her body.  
  
Storm's eyes are closed although lightning seems to be popping out of her eyelashes, and her head is titled to the side as if she were sleeping. This is exactly what was happening. The Windrider was asleep and had no idea of the terror her mutant abilities was beginning to create. "Aah!" Wolverine yelled as his body was sent helplessly down the hole that Ororo's lightning bolt had created. He too, had been in the attic sleeping when Ororo's body had lifted from the bed and released his hand with a short surge of static electricity.  
  
He had attempted to calm her by taking her hand again and shaking it gently, but she just continued to float upward. Then the bolt of lightning came from the sky, projected and magnified itself through the glass of the attic ceiling and turned the Windrider into a living lightning rod. Then from her body shot the lightning bolt, both outward and upward that bust open a hole 8 feet in diameter. Then from nowhere a gust of wind blew his body down the hole. And that's where he was.  
  
As he fell down the hole, it seemed like forever before he was caught hold of by a teenage girl, particularly, one in a yellow raincoat and pair of blue jean shorts. He dangled from her slim arms as she called out for someone to help her. And saved from the fury Storm, just like Rogue, he was pulled to the second floor by Caliban. "Storm!" the runt yelled from the top of his lungs up towards the attic where the lightning was continued, and then the entire glass ceiling of the roof bust open. The wind seemed to carry every piece of the shattered glass in directions away from her body, and down the hole with the hail and snow was a chute of glass. The spectators turned their faces and bodies and many of them screamed as they fell to the floor with small glass shards bouncing off their backs. "What is she thinkin' up there?" Wolverine question, although he knew no one there could answer his question.  
  
Xavier, though, could answer the question as he finally pried his way into Ororo's mind. She had been taught to resist probing of the mind by Xavier himself, as did the rest of the older X-Men, and he found it hard even for him to enter without a fight. As his blue eyes closed tightly inside of his pale skin he found himself walking, literally, in Storm's mind. As he walked around in his green khakis and his green suit jacket, he searched for Ororo's body. Instead he found himself in thick fog and continuous bolts of lightning. "Ororo, you must calm the tempest!" he called out, as his words echo echoed and never seemed to reach their destination and place of stop.  
  
"Charles! Help me! I cannot get out!" her voice suddenly yelled within her mind, through the thick fog and rumbling thunders, which had just begun. "AH!" she yelled with torrent as a burst of lightning went from the bottom of her mind straight to the top, lighting the void and then becoming dark again.  
  
Xavier did not waste his time as his mind projected itself towards the origin of the light. His own mind was becoming extremely tired for the constant pry into Ororo's mind and his breaths were becoming uneven in his physical body. He thought to himself, 'This is unusual, even for Ororo. Why would a virus be so devastating to her mentally?' and he found himself unable to answer his own questions. There was obviously more than the virus and Iodine in her body that was corrupting it. Something was in her mind, other than his presence, and it was causing even worse effects.  
  
"Charles, I need your help!" she yells as another bolt of lightning shoots from the base of her mind and the ground begins to shatter below Xavier's feet.  
  
He fell into a dark abyss and with a shout of pain he hit the bottom of her mind. He slowly crawled to his feet as he called out her name. He no longer heard the rumbles of thunder, or the sparks of lightning. "Ororo!" he called out, and heard no response. "Answer me!" he yelled with frustration.  
  
Then from the eerie silence came a large flash of light and a scream of pain and horror. It shattered Xavier's ears as his heart jumped and skipped a beat and fear crossed his mind. "Ororo!" he yelled as he turned in every direction, looking and searching for any sign that could be exposed from Ororo's mind and mental brainwaves. Psionic energy beckoned his mind towards her, finally. Pressing his way through the dissipating fog, he finally saw the outline of a black box, even in the darkness. As he made his way to the box, his legs became tired and his breathing in his real body became much shorter than before. He stumbled as he reached the box and made a mental door, which easily opened and spilled Ororo's body out. She lay there on the floor of her mind as Xavier looked into the box and saw lime green slugs that squirmed around the small container. They jumped out at his face and his blue eyes went wide as he was shoved out of Ororo's mind. With a yelp of pain, Xavier himself went unconscious in his office.  
  
Meanwhile, in the physical, the entire back lawn and lake area of the mansion had been devastated. Trees lay in waste and the pool was uprooted from the ground. Mud was splattered across the back windows and the security systems were totally uprooted and laid like rubble. And when Xavier had finally gained success in freeing Ororo she fell from the sky and every bit of nature cried with relief. Rogue watched as Ororo fell from high altitudes, but continued in wait of a command from Xavier. "Come on, Professor, Storm's about to meet with the ground," Rogue whispers to herself.  
  
She looks with green eyes almost covered with tears before taking flight through a window and making her way to Storm's body, which constantly did cartwheels towards the ground. Her air snapped behind her and all thoughts were muffled by the sound of the wind rushing pass her ears. Catching Storm just in time, they both fell to the ground softly in the mud from Rogue's rescue.  
  
The sound of a car came to a halt as Jean and Remy arrived back at the mansion. "Oh my God," Jean gasped, "What happened?" She closed her eyes and then opened them widely, "Storm's hurt."  
  
"Stormy?" Remy said, before noticing the lack of exclamation in Jean's voice, "You dun seem to concerned, chere."  
  
To Be Continued.. . 


	5. [5]

Ororo's Deathbed  
  
Author's Notes: My apologies to those fans who are saddened by any bad portrayals of their favorite characters or suggested relationships. Please no flames. Non-constructive criticism makes me lose my zeal for writing. As of far, the reviews have been pleasurable though. As for the original characters, they are mine, and although the story sometimes loses gaze of the plot, it is only to buy time without putting a divider over the screen. Thanks to you all for following me down this journey! :)  
  
. ..Continued  
  
Gambit did not give Jean any time to counter his accusation as he quickly jumped out of the opened convertible top and ran towards the muddy and icy ground where Rogue and Storm had finally landed. Along with him, were running the few people that stayed in the mansion that were not deathly afraid of this concealed Windrider.  
  
Although she had been nice to all who had come, and had expressed her motherly care and comfort to almost every mutant she met, she was still feared because of the greatness of her mutant abilities. Those who had been with her for a long time, and knew that the affections of her inner self would not allow her to harm any friends out of her own will, ran to her side as she lay unconscious. Coming from the select few: Logan, Jubilee, Hank, Rogue, Leech, Artie, Kitty, Caliban, and Jean, were whispers of her name, wondering if she was okay.  
  
In the mansion, through the windows, were simply gasps at the devastation only a small maelstrom had caused. Rumors spread of what was actually happening, although a number of them were far from the truth. Kitty Pryde found herself running from where Ororo was laid in the mud and to Xavier's office, not knowing that he also had a part in finally calming Storm's mind. As she ran head first into the red exterior of the mansion, her fit body seemed to turn into ghost-material. It was called 'phasing' by those who understood it batter. Her body basically turned from flesh, bones, and blood to a 'spiritual' state that could still be recognized as her and she easily slipped through physical matter, unharmed. This is what this phasing mutant did as she ran through the exterior of the mansion and through countless rooms and furniture. Finally reaching Xavier's office on the first floor, she found the leader unconscious and laying limp in his wheelchair.  
  
"Oh my gawd!" she said as she jumped up and down not knowing where to go and what to do. Just then, the forgotten lizard, Lockhead, caught Kitty's attention and climbed onto metal cabinet. Kitty quickly ran over to the cabinet, so many thoughts running through her that she could hardly realize what she pulled out of the top drawer. She pushed the com-link button, which automatically connected itself to the X-frequency uniquely modified by Xavier. She then put her mouth close to the speaker and her voice blurted into the communicator in Beast's lab coat, 'Hank! The Professor's in his office and hardly breathing! Hank!'  
  
'Kitty, I hear you. I shall be in there soon to transport him to the Medical Laboratory. If you can get him down there, though, please do so quickly. We are now transporting Storm down there as well,' Beast said back through his communicator.  
  
'Alright, I'll try to get him down there,' she said, almost crying, thinking to herself that both Ororo and the Professor could be dead. She then says to herself and to the unconscious Professor, "I hope Ororo didn't destroy the elevator system."  
  
She wheels Xavier out of the room in haste as she runs pass gasping students and is followed by a mob of disciples who are curious to find out what happened. The mansion had become unreasonable full and the new teenage students were becoming quite annoying when they filled up the hallways hourly. Then again, it was good to feel the vibe and ever-running adrenaline that they gave to the mansion. This adrenaline and lively emotion was now what ran through her body and mind as she rushed to the elevator and smiled within herself, beneath the haste, that it was working. Her followers stopped as the elevator space became limited and ran over to the other elevators and filled them quickly. As her elevator *dinged* she ran out, pushing the wheelchair in a rush. When the doors to the medical lab swished open she noticed a peace in the room as the fore-mentioned X- Men members, minus Kitty, were at Ororo's side and Beast threw away an empty antibiotic injector.  
  
Her adrenaline rush slowed down as she slowly wheeled Xavier inside. "Thank you Kitty," Hank said as he noticed her and immediately rushed to Xavier's wheelchair and moved him to a table.  
  
"I'm going to get some rest. I have to be ready to prepare breakfast tomorrow," Jean says, heartlessly, as she walks out of the room after looking to a bandaged Rogue and Wolverine, and taking a final glance at Ororo.  
  
No one seemed to notice Jean's untimely departure, except Beast who looked up to watch her soft red hair follow her out of the door. He continued to work on Xavier as Jean pressed her way through the crowd of teenagers outside. The redhead ignored various questions that were asked by the students and simply replied to many of them, "Ororo's a strong lady. She'll survive and turn out much better than before," with a smile of reassurance.  
  
Just as Jean expected the elevator doors to close a rod stopped the doors, followed by a black-gloved hand, which flung them open and allowed the trench-wearing swamp rat to join Jean. "I knew you couldn't resist to come back for more," Jean said seductively as he boarded the elevator behind her.  
  
"Jean, I-" but his words were cut off by Jean Grey as she wrapped her leg around his thighs and forced herself onto his lips. Her green eyes closed as Remy's red eyes gave a confused look of disapproval and pushed Jean away. Because of her lack of balance, the redhead fell to the elevator floor and looked up at Gambit with spite. "Dat just wasn't right, chere. You go crazy when Scott left. Now, listen, I don't want you."  
  
"Yes you do!" she says as she stands up and pins him against the elevator wall telekinetically and begins to mentally brainwash him. "You're mad about me! And you're going to be with me tonight!"  
  
When the elevator doors opened on the second floor Jean exited and Gambit followed behind her, his expressions seeming normal enough. A sly, devilish grin was crossing his face and as soon as he and Jean entered the room he attacked her with a kiss so passionate it was hard to tell whether it was spontaneous by him or a command by Jean. Nevertheless, the door to her room was closed to all spectators.  
  
"There goes your hopes at gettin' Gambit, girl," a young teenage female mutant said as she walked to the side of her friend whose eyes were still pressed upon the door that was no closed and locked.  
  
"No it's not," the first teenage girl whimpers, "Jean messed with his mind, stupid." She doodled with her long black hair, which was normal among Hispanics. With the power of psyche interference, she could easily sense when someone's mind was being pried and controlled. It was a unique ability, and normally not to useful, except when protecting her teammates from a powerful psychic.  
  
"You gon' let Jean and Remy ruin ya night?" an African American teenager said as he approached the Hispanic girl. It was unusual, at times, to see someone with extremely baggy pants and a shirt down to his thighs pull out flowers from behind his back, but not this one. He pulled out five roses from behind his back and put them close to her face.  
  
"Heh," she chuckles to herself before looking to him with hazel eyes, "Darè, I want you to know, that I don't want you and I need you to understand that."  
  
"Give up on Remy, Sierra," he says persistently as his brown eyes make contact with her hazel and she just stares, open-mouthed, as if encased. "C'mon, lemme holla at you real fast."  
  
"Girl, he's right," her friend whispers in her ear, "If you ever messed with Remy he'd be on his way to jail. And Darè's pretty cute anyway." The friend then walked away.  
  
"What about your obsession with Ms. Munroe?" Sierra asks him after her friend walks away but watches from a distance.  
  
The flowers begin to turn from red to white in his hands. "Ms. Munroe? Please, I let her go when I realized you. Even though Ms. Munroe is-" he tries to complete, but his words are cut off by Sierra.  
  
"Ich snay on the unroe May," she says in what would be defined as Pig Latin. His eyes turn to the white haired woman as she walks through the hall, leaning on the shoulder of Wolverine and walking behind Beast. Rogue was not to far behind. The students in the hall, including Sierra and Darè, watched as they walked by and stopped at Jean's door. Sierra nearly told them that Gambit was inside, but was silenced as Beast's massive hand went and knocked on the door.  
  
"Jean, are you present in the room?" he asks, already knowing she is. He continues to knock as he gets no answer. He had the time to think things over and analyze Jean's behavior. Either she was losing her mind, or she was the one that had poisoned Ororo. Or maybe it was a mix of both. He no longer pounded on the door, as it seemed helpless, and instead grabbed the doorknob and broke open the lock to the door.  
  
"Hank!" Jean yells from inside the room with her head above a bed sheet but the rest of her body covered. Her telekinetically charged hand sends Beast flying into the wall, nearly crushing Sierra beneath him.  
  
"Remy?" Ororo questioned before shaking her head and walking away. She released herself from Logan's shoulder and her hair began rising in as the white strands became blue with lightning and wind began to blow down the coffee tables in the hallway with all their contents. Then, suddenly it all stopped as Ororo's body went limp into the arms of Darè.  
  
"What did ya do to her kid?" Logan says as he quickly makes his way to Storm's side.  
  
"I can make plants, bimbo. All I did was put a little herb in her to put her to sleep," he says as the small incision to Ororo's skin is seen on the back of her arm.  
  
The door to Jean's room suddenly slammed closed. Beast got up from his fallen position and looked to Logan, "Please, take Ororo to a room where she can rest. Sierra, my apologies for crushing you, but I would like you to go and stay with Ororo tonight. Keep your mind alert, I believe you may feel a bit of psionic disturbance if my hypothesis is correct,"  
  
"Sure thing Mr. McCoy," she says as she seductively switches pass Darè and Logan lifts Storm in his arms and they walk to a bedroom.  
  
Darè is getting ready to walk down the hall with them, "Darè!" Hank calls out as he turns back, "I'll need your assistance in the laboratory to help with some antibiotics, if you're up to it."  
  
Darè mumbles something before walking towards the elevator. Hank then turns to Rogue, "Ready?"  
  
"Ah'll bust down the door, and get the swamp rat," she says as Beast nods his head and the next sound heard is a wisp of air as Rogue takes flight and slams down the door. Jean stands, as if prepared for them, clothed and with her hands outward, but she doesn't attack Rogue.  
  
Instead, the redhead sends a telepathic message to her mind, 'What're you doing, Rogue?'  
  
'You never mentioned anything about Ahodine! You tryin' to kill her or somethin'?' she replies in her mind to Jean before going after Remy. "What're you doin' swamp rat? One minute you're tryin' to get with Ororo and the next minute you're sleepin' with Jean?" Gambit simply does not respond to the questions, but instead looks at Rogue with glazed eyes.  
  
"I know you poisoned her Jean!" Hank says as he runs into the room with blue eyes focused on Jean.  
  
Jean simply lifts her hands again and Hank is held in mid-air, "Hank, you know as well as I that I love Ororo. How could you assume something like that?" she says with tears in her eyes.  
  
Hank growled with wrath just before he was dropped to the floor. A gloved hand was on Jean's shoulder as the redhead calmed, "Jean, we're both sorry for assumin' you did that. I guess we just got a little worried about our favorite Windrider." Rogue says as she drags both Gambit and Beast out of the door.  
  
Jean telekinetically bolts and closes the door before running her fingers backward through her hair. "Our favorite Windrider," she mumbles. "The Weather Witch's loving sister will be her downfall. It's all too good to be true," Jean says with a laugh as a light seems to crawl across her eyes.  
  
She walked out to her balcony and looked the clear sky with nothing but a bright, full moon shining. She flew to the room where Ororo was now placed and went to the balcony. Inside the room were Ororo, Logan, and Sierra, although she did not notice the teenager in there. "Oh Logan," she said while she sat on the balcony and then thought to herself, 'Our little Windrider will find her little love targets messing around with me and she'll have no reason to stay here; that's if she lives.'  
  
To Be Continued.. .  
  
Footnote: Yes, I know this section was a bit confusing and off target. It will all be deciphered next time I write, I promise. 


	6. [6]

Ororo's Deathbed  
  
Author's Notes: Yes! Questions are answered, but the story is not over. After some thinking, I decided to make the two custom characters a bit more involved in the story as well. It should help me to keep some continuity within the plot. Also, there will be another odd pairing [no slash]... sorry to those who find it disgusting.  
  
...Continued  
  
Wolverine walked outside onto the balcony as his extra-sensory hearing picked up the sound of Jean's whispering voice. When he walked out onto the balcony, he saw a red-haired woman sitting on the railing, contrasted with a background of bright stars and a full moon. "Red?" he said with his gruff voice as he closes the glass door leading from the room to the balcony.  
  
"Yes Logan," she says as he turns around to greet her, "Before you say anything, I want to tell you a few things. I didn't put Iodine into Ororo's body. You know that I love her. The reason I acted to so odd was because Scott left so abruptly. I felt like he didn't love me. And well, Remy, he just came onto me so strong there was nothing I could do. My soul was calling out for someone to hold me, and Remy was the only one to answer. But it's you who I really want."  
  
"Jean, I can't do this. I'm not gonna fool myself into thinkin' I still feel that way about you. It's 'Ro who I need," he answers without even thinking before speaking.  
  
She stepped down from the balcony and her heels made a slight clatter on the balcony ceiling. "Yes, of course," Jean answered with her emerald green eyes that never took sight off of Logan's face. She then suddenly lifted her hands to his face and pulled him with force to her own and kissed him passionately. "Well, bub," she says, mockingly of his familiar word, "I am not going to let you fool yourself. You want me, and you'll realize it once Ororo denies you. Don't you think I've been in her mind? I've looked around and searched for who she wants. She doesn't want you. Why would she? Why should she?"  
  
Logan growled and almost attacked Jean before silencing himself and speaking in a low tone, "Now you listen here Red-"  
  
Jean cut him off when she placed a finger to his lips, "I didn't mean that to put you down. But why would she want you if she can't love you right? I'm the only one..." she says will seductively licking her lips, "...that can love you right."  
  
Logan stood there, unable to respond as his icy blue eyes began to believe the words of Jean. "You'll find me, if you want me," she says as she lifts her body off of the balcony, "After all, you're the hunter."  
  
Logan watched as Jean flew around the corner of the X-Men. He then walked back inside the room, just as Remy and Rogue walked outside of the mansion below the balcony. "Remy, what were you doin' with her?" Rogue yelled in her southern accent as the two began to follow a path that led around the entire mansion in a circle. The path was made of concrete and the boundary was covered with colorful flowers that were brightly lit by the clear skies.  
  
"What do you care, Rogue?" he says with a slight attitude in his voice, "You dump me for Hank, remember?"  
  
"Remy!" Rogue yells at him as they stop walking and face each other on the path, "This has nothing to do with our former relationship. This has to do with you and Ororo, sugah!"  
  
"You t'ink I wanted to be wit' Jean? She controllin' my mind!"  
  
"Then why would she tell on herself, swamp rat?" Rogue yells before calming herself and returning to her point, "When Ororo wakes up and finds out what happened and gets 'hold of the whole picture, she's gonna hit you so hard with a lightnin' bolt-"  
  
Gambit cut her off abruptly, "Listen here Rogue! I told you I didn't want Jean!"  
  
"You know what Remy, you're not hurting me by messin' with Jean. But to try and get back at me while puttin' Ororo's feelins' at risk is terrible!"  
  
"I'm not gonna tell you again!"  
  
"That's right, you're not; 'cause I'm outta here," the Rogue says as her hair snaps behind her with the wind and she takes flight back towards the mansion.  
  
"Oh yeah Rogue?!" Gambit shouts at her, "Just 'cause Hank can't see it, I can tell you not Ms. Innocent!"  
  
"Whateva swamp rat," she says as she continues to fly, a bit faster now.  
  
Gambit slowly began to walk back towards the mansion, red eyes focused on the road below his feet as he thought of the events of the day. Although she had contracted the virus a few weeks ago, it had only been recently, namely the battle against the Friends of Humanity and the Sentinels, which had marked the beginning of Ororo's insanity.  
  
As he walked over the lines that divided each separate block of concrete, he made sure not to step on them. It was a usual game he played with himself while walking on a concrete sidewalk or path, such as this. But soon his attention was drafted towards the sky as he could no longer see the lines and the surroundings had become pitch black except for the lights that shone bright through the un-curtained mansion windows. Looking to the sky he saw everything now covered with heavy, gray clouds.  
  
"Stormy!" he exclaimed to himself as he began to run towards the door that he had exited with Rogue, the one just below Ororo's current balcony. A bolt of lightning blew off the glass doors to the balcony. He ran to the base of the balcony and extended his rod. Supporting his body on the flexible weapon, his body was flung into the air and he landed gently, neatly, and acrobatically onto the balcony. Just as he ran into the room, the sky began to clear and the light to the bedroom flickered on.  
  
"I heard a big crash," Jean said as she lowered her hand from the light switch.  
  
"Yeah sure you did!" Sierra said as she stood from a chair in the corner of the room, "It was your psychic abilities I felt. Good thing I interfered before you made Ms. Munroe kill herself! Stay out of her mind you psychotic witch!"  
  
Ororo gasped for air and Remy ran to her side. "Stormy," he whispered as he grabbed her hand and petted it. She looked to Remy as she lifted her head and her hair was lifted in tangles with it.  
  
"Logan!" she exclaimed when she looked down and noticed smoke flying from Logan's body. "Bright Lady! Logan I did not mean to hurt you!" she said as she apologized to the groaning mutant.  
  
Suddenly Hank and Rogue barged into the room as well and were first drawn to the Logan's body, which was covered by smoke. "I'll take him downstairs," Hank said as he took Logan's body into his arms. "Ororo, Darè will be coming up to give you some antibiotics and herbs soon. Sierra I still want you to stay with Ororo and monitor everything; I'll be coming to see you soon to discuss what happened." He looked to Jean with fierce eyes before taking Logan out of the room.  
  
"Where is Charles?" Ororo said as she let the cover drop off of the blouse she was wearing and moved her back against the head of the bead to support it.  
  
"He's still unconscious, sugah," Rogue says as she sits on the bed, her legs dangling off the side as her gloved hand grabs Ororo's.  
  
"Stormy, are you okay?" Remy answered as he reached out for her other hand once more.  
  
But she had no time to answer as the teenage Sierra confronted Jean, "What did you think you were doing Ms. Grey?!" the Latina yelled. "Ms. Munroe was doing fine until I felt your mental presence in the room. You're the one that gave her the Iodine didn't you? You just better be glad I didn't get a chance to look around in that skull of yours, you-"  
  
"Please, child," Ororo says as she beckons Sierra to her side, "If Jean was in my mind she must have been trying to help. The things that I see in my head could not be the craftsmanship of my loving sister. Jean and I have been through a lot in the past. The encounter with the Dark Phoenix has truly been an example of our sisterly love. As much as Jean loves me, I love her, and I would appreciate it very much if you allowed her the chance of innocence." Ororo then turns her face to Jean, "I trust you, if no one else does." She then smiles as she lifts her folded hands to her face and lets out a series of coughs.  
  
"Thank you for your trust Ororo," Jean says as she walks over and gives Ororo a sisterly hug. "You always have the right words to say for a hurting soul."  
  
Ororo smiles as Jean exits the room and then looks to those who are surrounding her. "Remy, Sierra, will you both excuse me while I speak to Rogue?"  
  
"Sure thing Ms. Munroe," Sierra says as she returns to her seat. Remy bends down and plants a kiss on Ororo's forehead and his lips part slowly from her caramel skin and he walks out of the room without any words.  
  
"Rogue," she says softly to Ororo to keep their conversation within their own ears and to not disturb Sierra as she wrote into a personal diary. "I thank you for allowing Hank to take charge of everything and to pay so much attention to me."  
  
"It's okay Ororo," Rogue says as her green eyes refuse to make contact with Ororo's brown orbs, "Hank is a carin' guy and ah'm glad he's willin' to help you. You know you mah gal Ororo," she says with a smile.  
  
"Rogue, do you think, also, that Jean has tried to poison me?" Ororo questions right after Rogue finishes. She lets out air from her nose and an expression of frustration is expressed on her face.  
  
"Ororo, I have something to admit to you..." Rogue starts, but her words trail off into silence as Darè enters the room.  
  
"Ms. Munroe," he says as he enters with a tin tray in his hands, "Mr. McCoy wanted me to give you some antibiotics and let you drink this herbal tea. Most of it is to get the Iodine outta ya system or whateva." He walked over to the bed and placed the tray down which had five pills and a large glass of water accompanied by a small mug of herbal tea. "Here, take the pills first," he says while handing her the glass of water and watching as she took the pills.  
  
"Darè, could you call Remy in here for me?" Ororo asks.  
  
"Eh yo, Gambit," the African American teen called from inside the room, "Ms. Munroe wunna see you." Darè then walked to the corner where Sierra was sitting and began to flirt.  
  
As Remy entered the room, Rogue left, not wanting Ororo to pursue the conversation she had begun. Remy slowly made his way to Ororo. It seemed almost pathetic as if she were saying her last words to each of her friends. Red eyes looked down to Ororo as she turned to the other side of the bed and experienced another coughing tantrum. When she finally stopped, she took a drink of tea, and Remy felt to guilty to say anything. He felt, for the first time in a very long time, nervous to speak to Ororo. When Ororo finally turned her eyes to him, her eyes were foggy white again. "Remy, is there something wrong? You seem a bit tense."  
  
"Stormy, you plannin' on leavin' de X-Men. Remy dun like that idea," he says softly while seeing the two giggling teens talk to each other from the corner of his eye. He then turns his attention back to Ororo, "But like de Cajun say before, if Stormy leave, so does Gambit."  
  
"Remy, I thank you for your-" she started but her own words were cut off as she began to cough uncontrollably, this time worse than before. Her entire body rattled the bed and she could feel her stomach boiling from her digestive acids. Remy watched this happen like a helpless pawn at the mercy of a queen, bishop, and knight on a chessboard, all of them ready to take this piece out and claim another move of victory against the king.  
  
When the coughing tantrum finally stopped he looked to Ororo and mumbled to her, "You need to get some sleep." He began to approach her for a kiss to the forehead but she turned away.  
  
"Please, Remy, I have a hard enough time trying to figure out whether or not you are the one I am searching for. My heart desires a romantic genius, but one that did not find himself in the bed of Jean Grey," Ororo said with spite.  
  
"What? You were just talkin' about how you trust her. Now you doubt?"  
  
"Remy, that is not the only thing. I am very confused while both you and Logan have chosen to approach me at the same time, and I am very frustrated with the nature of this virus. My mind is in complete torrent in a mental warfare. Sierra knows, and she is helping to protect my mind from whoever is trying to pry inside; if it is Jean, then my doubts would be plausible.  
  
However, I have also noticed that Rogue has gone completely out of her way to protect me and help me in my time of need. She is completely going out of her way to protect me, Remy. I do not understand her actions or whys he feels that she must watch over me so carefully. Could it be, perhaps, that Rogue is the one who is prying into my mind? After all, Xavier has been unconscious for time, and Rogue could have absorbed his abilities. I pray that she did not do this."  
  
"Sleep on it, Stormy," he said, grabbing her cold hand inside his warm, gloved hand and looked down to her as she lay there.  
  
"Remy, I am afraid to sleep," she says as tears finally fall down her face, and for the fourth time in her life, she has cried. She weeps uncontrollably as Remy sits down on the bed and allows her to lay her head on his chest as he wraps his arms around her.  
  
"Lights out!" Rogue yells from outside in the hallway. The time must have been somewhere around 12am as usual. Now all that was heard in the halls weren't muffled voices, but closing doors, running feet, and teenagers kissing each other to sleep before parting.  
  
Rogue continued to walk down the hall as doors continued to close. She made a routine check in both the boys dorm and the girls dorm. She purposely made the adult quarters her last stop. She made her way to Jean's room and turned the unlocked doorknob. She did not see the redhead inside. Instead, she mocked Jean from what she said earlier that day when she left the Medical Lab, 'I'm going to get some rest. I have to be ready to prepare breakfast tomorrow morning.' She made her way to the library quickly as she now flew through the halls. She could now fly because the halls were empty, and she found this a quicker way to travel anyway.  
  
When she finally reached the library, she landed outside the large French doors and took a peak inside. There was Jean, on the computer looking at something. It was at times like these where she would pray to have extra sensory abilities so she could read from afar what Jean was plotting. She slowly made her way inside through a side entrance to the library, hovering just above the floor to avoid making the wooden floors creak. As she slowly made her way to a position where she could easily read the computer screen she saw a documentary about Iodine.  
  
"It was you!" Rogue said, completely losing her temper as she flew down and grabbed Jean's neck, sending the redhead woman flying into a bookcase.  
  
"Rogue! What do you think you're doing?!" Jean yelled as she broke her impact with the bookcase with a telekinetic forcefield and the books and shelves fell around her and onto the floor. "You had your methods and I had mine!"  
  
To Be Continued... 


	7. [7]

Ororo's Deathbed  
  
Author's Notes: There's more coming soon. A lot of action this section and hidden romance. We're somewhere near the climax here, I'm guessing so soon everything should be becoming clear.  
  
...Continued  
  
"What do ya mean ya own methods?" Rogue said with green eyes concentrated on Jean.  
  
Just then Logan bust into the room with a bandaged around his waist and abdominal region. His blue eyes first looked down to the fallen books, then to the back of Rogue and a glowing Jean Grey. "I heard a crash," he says with a gruff voice as he steps in, much slower than he had when pushing open the large library doors.  
  
"Logan, this doesn't concern you. It's girl talk. We're okay though," Jean said with a smile to Logan.  
  
"Well let's talk girlies," Logan said sarcastically as he steadied his position, and stood with his arms crossed.  
  
"Logan, please, this is a private conversation," Jean said with green eyes as her invisible telekinetic shield dropped and she walked over to the blue- haired man. She let her thin, ivory-colored hand rub through the strands of his unique hairstyle, "Please?" she begged with a familiar puppy-dog eye scheme and a poked-out bottom lip like a baby.  
  
"Anything for that face," Logan said as he rubbed his rough facial hairs against Jean's smooth, cool, skin and walked out of the room, closing the large doors behind him with a smile.  
  
Jean stood there for a moment, running her fingers backward through her hair as she looked at Rogue who remained silent. When Logan came crashing through the wall, Rogue made an 180degree turn and looked in shock. She watched as the short runt was thrown into a bookcase and the shelves caved in on his body. Jean walked over to him and then it was obvious she was responsible for this. "I'm a psychic you moron! Didn't you think I could read your mind and knew you would still spy on us? You should have been dead already. Just be glad that lightning bolt didn't hit any adamantium!"  
  
"Jean! Why?" Ororo asked, as she stood in the room now, with Sierra and Darè behind her in a defensive stand. In the strangest of scenarios, there stood five mutants, in a situation where the entire cause of disagreement was unknown.  
  
"Ororo, why what?" Jean said as she slowly walked towards her white-haired friend. "I thought you trusted me. You told me that you trusted me, that I had nothing to worry about."  
  
Ororo's body was not up for the physical stress that this late night agenda was calling out for. Her eyes were a foggy white. At the times she would cough, a thunder rolled instead. At the moments that she would prepare to sneeze, there would be a lightning bolt shocking the night sky. "Jean," Ororo began, "It is quite frightening to put my trust in you if you have so half-heartedly thrown Logan aside as you have. It is as if you are losing your mind!"  
  
"I'm not the one losing my mind," Jean says with a snicker as she stops walking, "You're the one dreaming about lime green slugs and a box." A smile crosses Jean's lips as her eyes looked straight into Ororo and the thunder begins to roll non-stop. Ororo is on her knees, holding her stomach, as the sky pleads for mercy from her.  
  
"Get out of her mind!" Sierra yells from behind as she charges towards Jean but soon suffers the same fate as Wolverine as her teenage body is sent flying into a bookcase and the books bury her alive.  
  
"Sierra!" Darè yells as he finds himself unable to move. "Ms. Grey, what's wrong with you?!"  
  
"You know... for all these years I had Scott all to myself. Please, I basically had all the men in this wretched mansion to myself. The red- haired beauty that everyone wanted to be around, to please, and to adore," Jean began. "Then you came along, you stinking weather witch!" she yelled with fury as she telekinetically lifted Ororo's body and it crashed into the French doors. Glass went tumbling down the back of the Windrider as she was dropped to the floor. "Scott was still entrapped by me, of course. But every time I paid interest to Logan, well, Scott didn't get jealous. He just found a new playmate. Someone he could flirt with while I was away. Someone he could talk to in the middle of the night because he was afraid of my and abilities and myself. No, he didn't want to talk to a telepath, he wanted to talk to a compassionate African goddess! Who are you a goddess over anyway, Ororo? The roaches of the Sahara Desert? Or perhaps just the bugs that will be crawling around your coffin!"  
  
"That's enough Jean!" Rogue yelled as her fist impacted with Jean's back and sent the crazed mutant flying forward and released the pressure on Ororo's mind and Darè's body. Rogue bent down and picked up the fallen Jean before tossing her out of the Library window and watching as she hit the ground with a thud. The auburn-haired Rogue with her white streak, flew out of the window and down to ground level as she approached Jean again. Rogue picked Jean up with her super strength, and flung the helpless body into the bark of a tree. "How could ya lie ta me?" Rogue yelled before turning around at the sound of a sliding, glass door opening from the kitchen.  
  
"Rogue, dear, what are you doing out here in such a staggering hour?" Henry McCoy said as he slowly approached his enraged girlfriend. His eyes were bloodshot read and it looked as if he was struggling to keep them open. When his full surroundings were finally allowed to calculate within his mind, he stopped walking towards Rogue and stared at the fallen Jean Grey through the dark night. He looked up to see Ororo watching from a broken Library window and Remy slowly stepping behind her.  
  
"Remy," Ororo cried as she laid her head on his chest, "How could she do this to me? She was like my sister."  
  
Remy rubbed his hand against her back as she wept in his arms, and neither of them noticed the emergence of Logan from beneath the books. The blue- eyed runt growled at the sight of Ororo being held in Remy's arms. She hadn't made the slightest effort to help him, or perhaps he was just being selfish. After all, she was that needed the affection and comfort, and he hadn't been there to give it.  
  
Rogue looked at Hank, still not answering his question as she began a slow flight toward Jean. They hadn't seen any movement, heard any noises from her since she had met face-to-face with the tree trunk. Then from beneath the darkness of the night came the voice of Jean, "You traitor!" she yelled with fury and it echoed but was soon drained out by a sudden roll of continuous thunder as Ororo went to her knees and the sky coughed for her.  
  
Three trees completely left the ground and their roots as they swatted at Rogue like a bug. Rogue stood there as the wind passed her hair and allowed the trees to hit her. With her feet strongly planted in the ground, her super strength and practical invulnerability came to her aid as the trees left a mold of her body in their thick barks but phased her not a bit. "Ya know what Jean? Ya look as nervous as the three blind mice in a room fulla big cats," Rogue said in her southern accent with her usual southern phrase, "And ah'm takin' you down!" She began to fly through the air and towards Jean, but was unable to stop when she wanted.  
  
Jean made a sound of sly laughter as she telekinetically controlled Rogue's flying body, and she flew fist first into Logan's new motorcycle, dismembering it completely. "Any more takers?" Jean said as she approached the mansion and the lights that were on lit her body.  
  
Hank quickly accepted the proposal as he saw Rogue injured in front of the garage and his large massive hand wrapped around Jean's scrawny throat. "You beast!"  
  
"I'm not the beast, Hank," she snickers, "And I need not fear your physical 'wrath' when I can seep into your mind much faster than you can strangle me," she said.  
  
All the while, thunder was still rolling as Ororo was bent over on her knees. Both Remy and Logan were at her side on their knees, preventing them from being hit by Hank's blue, furry body as it was sent flying through the already broken Library window. "Gambit dun like de way she play, mon a mi," Remy says as he grabs one of the fallen books and kinetically charges it. The books lights up with the odd energy and is sent in no shame at Jean. When Jean turns to see the book, it explodes at Gambit's will and dust is left lingering in the air. He then attempts to comfort Ororo, trying to tell her it was all right and was over. But, his assumption was wrong.  
  
Jean's telekinetic hand lifted the Cajun off the Library floor. His brown trench coat danced like a snake as it grabbed his face and wrapped him tight. The red-eyed Cajun began to suffocate as Jean strangled him in his own coat.  
  
The thunder was beginning to come exceedingly loud as well as lightning began to line up the sky as well. Slowly, but surely, the wind began to pick up as Ororo's forehead began to sweat blood and a strong migraine headache hit her head. "What're you doin' to her?" Wolverine growled at Jean.  
  
"Making sure she dies this time," Jean smiles.  
  
"Ah'll make sure you die, sugah," Rogue says as she comes quickly, and unexpectedly revived, behind Jean. She grabs the long red hair of the former friend at the scalp. She swings Jean around and prepares to release her before she realizes that Jean is no longer there in her hands, just a long red wig. She looked to Jean, whose hair was short and a rusty red color instead of fiery red. "What in tha-" Rogue began before her body was buried under Logan's large, heavy body.  
  
"Now, to finish off you oh wonderful Windrider," Jean says as she floats up to the Library window. Ororo looks at her with fierce brown eyes and prestigious anger crossing her face.  
  
"You should have killed me when you had the chance, Jean," Ororo says with a deep, heavy-accented voice, as she rises to her feet. The thunder and lightning stop as a light drizzle pelts against the ground.  
  
"Really? How will you protect yourself weather witch? Your mind is so disoriented you can't even control the elements correctly. Or will your worshippers protect you?" Jean laughs as she looks around at the fallen mutants, "It seems as if they are all non-worshippers now." Jean's laughter became an enraged shout now, "There you are Ororo! Two lovers, a best friend, and an educated monster! They're all at the doorstep of death because of you!"  
  
Ororo lifted her hands as a gust of wind began to blow from behind her, "I am the mistress of the elements. With a mind or no mind, the weather is still at my will!" Ororo says from beneath the wind as it blows hard against her back but she does not move. The wall flies open like a door and hangs off the mansion only by the connection of other bricks. Books find themselves on the ground outside as Ororo finally lifts her body off the ground and onto a pocket of air. The wind grows stronger as Jean's body flips backward through the air and into a tree. Jean was persistent in her task, and as she emerged from the tree, the blood on her lip was wiped away by her hand. A bolt of lightning came flying down from the sky, but trickled onto the ground around Jean as she encased herself in a telekinetic shield.  
  
"You can do all the spectaculars that you want, Ororo. All I have to do is wait here until you become weary. When that happens, I'll have your mind, and with your mind comes your life!" 


	8. [8]

Ororo's Deathbed  
  
Author's Notes: This new section is short, yes, I understand. It also leaves a lot of questions, but little action left to be done. In the next two or three chapters the story may come to a close, but many questions will be answered. Romance will be exhibited. And there will be a lot of angry Jean fans. :-D  
  
...Continued  
  
Jean Grey stood there, in her telekinetic shield, very confident that she had already won the battle. Having defeated her closest friends with her hands down, she saw Ororo as no threat, especially since she was sick and her body was steadily weakening. "This is it, Ororo. Just give up. As soon as you sleep, your mind will be mine, and there is no way you can get inside my telekinetic force field." Jean says, seeming self-assured for victory, but knowing Ororo had one of the strongest barriers against psychic probes. She had been trained by Xavier, as did the other X-Men, but she had been paid much attention to. If the slightest psychic influence entered her mind and released her self-control the results would be devastating. Jean knew, the weakest time of Ororo's mind, would be while she rested. Although the red head considered this to be a stumbling block, she did not let it take down her security in triumph.  
  
Ororo, as usual, has a stern look on her face with her thin eye brows pointing down and inward as she frowns. Her foggy white eyes began to glow with lightning, as her entire body became a lightning rod. Her caramel lips were hidden under the amazing light, but there was no doubt when her voice spoke, "Jean, have you forgotten? I am already inside your force field."  
  
"That is foolishness," Jean said with a smirk on her face, "I would expect a wise word from you, Ororo." Her red lipstick reflected Ororo's lightning display, as Ororo did not respond to Jean's latter comment.  
  
From inside Jean's own force field formed a sharp zap of lightning into Jean's stomach. The temperature inside the force field rose with the emergence of the lightning bolt to 100º F. It would have normally been much hotter than that, but Ororo was not willing to kill a friend when other things could have been done to stop the worst from happening. Another bolt of lightning came from the edge of the force field just as quickly and knocked Jean in the back, making her lose balance and control, causing the force field to dissipate.  
  
"Although my body is out here, the elements are everywhere. Are you foolish enough to believe that you are capable of destroying me: Mistress of the Elements? When the day comes when you defeat me, Jean, then the world's end has truly descended upon the Earth. Until then, any chances that you will overtake me are futile," Ororo says, sometimes breaking up her words with a cough. "And although I would normally find a better adjective to describe such foolish behavior, I find the lesser word more appropriate. Jean, you are an idiot for believing you could ever defeat me."  
  
Jean slowly crawled to her feet, supporting herself on a tree bark. Her skin had burn marks across what was once smooth and silky ivory-colored skin. Her short hair was tattered and her shirt was missing pieces across its middle and back from the lightning, which turned her torso into a red patch. "You witch!" Jean said as she threw a mental bolt into Ororo's mind. Storm did not budge, move, or quirk with pain.  
  
"You forgot about me," Sierra says as she comes out of the sliding glass door, holding the hand of Darè. She had bruises on her arms and back from the books and her hair was a mess, but that in no way weakened her psychic interference abilities. Jean's own attack bounced off the invisible barrier and hit Jean in her mind. Her head went flying backwards and the rest of her body followed as her back was scratched against the rough bark of a tree. The tree seemed to sprout vines spontaneously with thorns lined all across them. They took Jean's body and pinned it against the tree trunk and the thorns pierced her skin.  
  
Ororo turned to face the two students of the Institute and gave them a nod of gratitude before walking to where Jean was laying. "I apologize that I must do this my friend," she said as Jean's body became encased in a box of ice, and a continuous winter blizzard continued its fury inside. Slowly but surely, the helpless body froze. It was the only way to stop Jean from her plot without killing her. "I am sorry sister," Ororo says as Jean's heart slows to a beat where she will remain in a permanent rest until Ororo decides to remove her from the icy cell.  
  
Brown eyes looked to the icy box in confusion, betrayal, and disapproval. Ororo thought to herself: 'Why did it have to be this way? And why did Scott leave just before all of this took place? Is it possible that he knew and was too afraid to tell me? How could Xavier lose such control and go into such a deep sleep just by walking in my mind? Perhaps the majority of my sickness had been created by Jean's mental attacks on me. It did seem as if every time I began to sleep things began to get much worse than before. But I do not understand why Jean would do something like this. Perhaps-" her thoughts were cut off as she felt a tap on her shoulder.  
  
"Ms. Munroe, what do we do now?" Sierra asked with tired eyes.  
  
As Ororo prepared to answer, she felt a sudden drop in energy and heaviness in her knees. Nearly vomiting, she fell face forward.  
  
"Ms. Munroe!" 


	9. [9]

Ororo's Deathbed  
  
Author's Notes: Spending some quality time with Sierra.  
  
...Continued  
  
The morning sun rose bright in the sky over the ravage Xavier's Institute for the Gifted. There on the first floor was a broken window on the exterior of the red brick mansion. The landscaping was destroyed by winds, lightning storms, and struggle throughout the entire night. There in the driveway were the pieces of a motorcycle and fallen trees. Not only was the outside in horrible shape, but the expensive French doors that gave passage to the Library were also destroyed beyond a pricey repair.  
  
The younger students awoke that morning, surprised that they had all slept through the obvious chaos of the late night events. All except Sierra and Darè, who found themselves waking up later than usual and late for their class schedules. With sunlight beaming through their windows, it was hard to imagine that something so devious had happened the night before in the very same place.  
  
Sierra was the first to awaken from her slumber in her dorm room after all the other students had devoured breakfast and went to homeroom. "Oh my gosh," she said as she looked in the mirror to tired eyes and a bruise on her cheek, "Darè is not going to want to talk to me anymore and it's all that ditzy Ms. Grey's fault." Although she had been through quite a transaction the night before, she was still a teenager, and despite the occurring situations, she was more concerned with what a boy thought of her than her accomplishments. "That's alright though, Sierra," she said as she pampered herself and walked towards the girl's dorm bathroom, "You showed that Jean last night and Ms. Munroe - aye! Ms. Munroe... I wonder if she's okay."  
  
As she stepped into the shower she recapped on the night's events before she fell to sleep from absolute exhaustion:  
  
'After defeating Jean Grey so simply by putting her in a cold sleep, Ms. Munroe stood for a minute. I remember that part. The next thing I know, she fell to the ground. Darè ran to her side, and I felt jealous for a minute, before realizing that he was only injecting a special herb inside of her. For a moment I thought I saw her stop breathing. I was nearly panicking my head off until Mr. McCoy came to the window and looked out at the frozen witch and Ms. Munroe. I was so nervous I couldn't even explain what happened to him. So, he jumped out of the window like a jolly wilder beast and picked up Ms. Munroe's body. It was like something out of a stupid movie flick or something, like Ms. Munroe was meant to kill the stupid Jean! I mean, as soon as she defeated the ugly trick, everybody started to wake up. Rogue went over and carried Jean into some special cold isolation cell or something to keep her in that cold sleep. It's like Jean's a reptile or something. It'd be funny if she is. The next thing I know, Wolverine is behind me telling me I should get some sleep and I fall out in his arms. Aye! I hope Darè doesn't think I like him. Yuck, that's just disgusting. I can't believe he and Ms. Munroe are talking either. So anyway, the last time I opened my eyes before I woke up, I see somebody tucking me in bed but I can't make out the face because of the shadows. I hope it was Darè. Let me get out of this shower... I can't wait to see him!'  
  
And that's what she did. Completing her shower, she made her way out of the bathroom after drying. With a large towel wrapped around her body and water dripping from her long hair, she lost thought of everything and everybody except Darè. There once more was another fascination for someone her age and in her situation.  
  
She entered her dorm room and put on a pair of hip-hugger jeans and a halter-top. On her feet was a pair of black high-heeled boots. "Now to hide this ugly bruise," she said as she sat down at a vanity, exclusive to the female dorm. As she began to comb her hair in a way that it would cover he cheek, her mind began to wander again:  
  
'I'm sure the news has spread all across the mutant community now. Geez, if we had our own newspaper it'd be the front headlines. -Xavier's Storm Kills Jean Grey-. Of course the media would always have to exaggerate things, even if a little bit. But I would think Mr. Summers would be back with a few words and optic blasts. It makes me wonder that he had something to do with it. He'd do anything for Jean... and that's just buck-wild. Now that looks better.'  
  
She examined her hidden cheek under black hair and brown highlights. She looked into her own hazel eyes in the mirror and smiled, pleased with her appearance. Rising from her seat at the vanity, she looked at the alarm clock and noticed she was late for second period already. Sticking a small bottle of lip-gloss in her back pocket, she grabbed a History book and a notepad. Rushing out, she slammed the door behind her and ran down the hall. She must have been in the same predicament many times before, for even in the high heels she ran with much speed and consistency before crashing into Darè who was half-sleep. "Ow!" she said as she rubbed her forehead.  
  
"What's the rush?" he asked with his hands in his baggy blue jean pockets, which cuffed at the bottom to cover his construction colored fashionable boots. A long shirt, as before, went down to his mid-thighs and a loose watch held onto his wrist where his hand started.  
  
"History! You know how Ms. Munroe is!" she said, rushing the words out of my mouth and not really grasping Darè's point until he actually made it, himself.  
  
"Ms. Munroe is in the med lab," he reminded her with dark brown eyes.  
  
"Well let's go see her, cutie," she said as she grabbed his hand and pulled him with her towards the grand staircase, which led into the foyer of the Institute on the first floor. Quickly down the steps, nearly tripping over each other, the two young mutants found themselves in a rush to see how she was doing. Neither of them had been awake for the final diagnosis on her wellness.  
  
As they ran, Darè hoped to himself that his work to give her a healing herb the night before had been potent enough to help fight off the virus. His boots made a thud against the floor as they finally landed in the foyer and ran towards the elevator. At many points, he heard his brain telling him to stop running, but his legs wouldn't respond. The adrenaline rush was beyond comprehension. His forehead frowned with wrinkles and gave him a headache as he worried that his attempts had been in vain.  
  
After entering the elevator, they stood side-by-side with fast beating hearts, and countenances of anxiety. The same questions ran through their minds:  
  
'Will Ororo be all right? What will Professor say when we come in during school hours? Mr. McCoy and Rogue? - I never saw that one coming. That's probably the only well kept secret around this place.'  
  
DING. The elevator opened on the lower levels and the door swished open as the two teenage mutants walked down the hall with entwined fingers. The med lab was not far down from the elevator; it was in a convenient location for emergencies, which was its main purpose. When the approached the automatic metallic doors, they SWISHED open and revealed the mutants inside.  
  
The two entered the room with wide eyes at the scene. Ororo was laying on a table/bed with a light blanket over her. There was a small cloud just hanging over her head, not doing anything. Every now and then she would squirm and groan, then wouldn't make another sound for a long time. She would just lay still as if she was dead. Then their eyes moved onto Beast. He was sitting at a desk, big and bulky, and writing with a pen, never giving the chance to look up. There was Rogue, right behind him, sitting in Indian style on the air.  
  
On the other side of the room was Logan who kept extracting and retracting his adamantium claws from his knuckles. He would watch them glimmer and dance under the bright luminescent lights of the room, and then watch them go down in just as fast a motion. His healing abilities allowed him to endure the pain so easily, and the years of doing this over and over again had petitioned his nerves to deal with it. And there, next to Logan, was Remy. It looked as if he had just gotten off of a respirator, which was possible since Jean nearly suffocated him to death. Perhaps he did die somewhere in the process, the miracles of heaven and the growth of science.  
  
Now the brown haired man was no longer on any type of respirator, instead, he was cleanly clothed and walking towards Ororo. No one in the room seemed to notice the teenagers until the door SWISHED open behind them, and Xavier appeared in the room on his familiar hovercraft wheelchair.  
  
He had an angry appearance on his face as well. His blue eyes, which were once full of love, were now full of spite. One of his most trusted students had betrayed him and their entire family. He put his hand under the cloud that Ororo had undoubtedly created in her state of sleep, and on top of her warm forehead. Finally, her body heat was matching the fever that was building itself inside her body to try and purify her body of the virus that still plagued it. The unwanted Iodine seemed to stay in her blood as well.  
  
His mind focused without a words to the students, even Sierra and Darè, and he began to enter Ororo's mind. What he found was not pleasant and surely not a daydream. Although the nightmares were no longer there as they were before, Ororo was continuously relapsing on her childhood and being buried under the rubble of a hotel. He heard every sound that Ororo heard: the sound of a counter-attack hitting a war plane and the crash that it made in the sky, the sudden rumbling of the entire apartment, and a loud vibration in the ears as the plane made it's way into the structure and everything began to cave in. He felt what she felt when the heat erupted from the plane's impact and the crushing of the heavy building against her young body. Everything was so real, right down to the feel of the tears against her face. He felt the warm stream of tears while he was in her mind and nearly exerted his own tears back in his wheelchair. For the first time, his mind actually felt Ororo's hidden pain. Perhaps this was the reason the tempest would never let her full fury unleash itself.  
  
When he finally exited her mind, he took a deep breath, with white eyelids covering his icy blue orbs. He knew that all these thoughts had been released by Jean to destroy Ororo mentally so physically she would be no match. Ororo had conquered her fears well whilst in battle, but while sleeping they continued to haunt her, creating the small cloud that hovered over her head as she slept.  
  
"Rogue, I want answers now! You have been keeping too many secrets and I have allowed you to keep them long enough without probing your mind. I want answers right here and right now!" Xavier yelled suddenly as he opened his eyes and moved his hovercraft to the middle of the room.  
  
Sierra and Darè watched in shock as Hank turned around to face Rogue. Logan also stopped playing with his claws. Remy sat down on the table/bed next to Ororo and took her hand. Ororo's eyes suddenly fluttered open as well. Once again, an odd reaction as if planned or determined by destiny to happen.  
  
"Now Rogue!" the baldhead professor said with fury.  
  
Footnote: Uhm, so this chapter is a bit not-so-focused-on-Storm but going through the entire medical process over a 9-hour period is kind of boring I think. So, I decided to do it like this. And uhm, as you can see, next chapter will hold the answers to a lot of questions, no doubt. :) 


	10. [10]

Ororo's Deathbed  
  
Author's Notes: None.  
  
...Continued  
  
"Professor! How can you accuse Rogue of having any part in this?" Hank said, almost jumping over the desk in a rage. Normally, he would be the one to think first, make a plausible conclusion to his actions, and then take a stand. This time, everything went backwards.  
  
"Hank, please take a seat," Xavier said, slamming his fist against the top of his hovering wheelchair. "Rogue, I want answers now. Tell me everything you know!"  
  
Rogue turned around and faced the wall as tears began to fall from her green eyes. All eyes were watching her back and waiting to hear that southern accent come alive, but all they heard were sobs.  
  
"Rogue, we can never get to the bottom of this situation if you don't allow us to know those secrets!" Xavier yelled with a hot temper. He waited again to hear anything from Rogue, but she said nothing. "You owe it to Ororo," he finally said.  
  
She sniffled and sent a gloved hand to her nose. "Alright," she said as she patted her eyes and dried the tears. "It all started that day when Ororo decided not tah come tah the Danger Room session. E'rbody was wonderin' why she ain't come down. Me and Jean were really wonderin' since we were the closest. So Jean went into her mind and started pokin' around. She found out that Ororo was plannin' on leavin' the X-Men."  
  
The room went into a gasp as all eyes looked to Ororo, except Rogue's. Ororo's brown eyes stayed on Rogue, wondering all the while, how her closest friends could ever question her decisions.  
  
"Ah for one couldn't stand to see her go. So Jean thought up a scheme: give Ororo a temporary virus. We knew she would stay as long as she was sick 'cause we had all the medical things here. The longer she stayed the more time we had to try and convince her to stay." She stopped for a moment as she put her palms onto the wall and tears dropped from her eyes to the floor. She soon turned around with her back against the wall and slowly sat on the floor, rubbing her back against the wall while going down.  
  
"Ah neva knew about the ahodine until Hank said somethin'. I would'a neva did somethin' like that to Ororo," she sobbed for a moment, but the eyes across the room never took an eye off of her. "Scott knew about the virus plan too. That's why he left. He didn't want tah hurt Ororo in any way and hoped leavin' would convince Jean not tah do it."  
  
"Where is Scott now?" the Professor questioned with his eyebrows pointing down towards his nose.  
  
"Ah dunno... he just left. Ah was kinda scared when Ororo fell down in the battle against the sentinels... actually ah was frightened tah death. But she survived. That's when I knew somethin' else was wrong. 'Cause she just fell. She wasn't s'pposed to get that weak yet. Jean was toyin' around in her brain, makin' her think she was in a closed box.  
  
"When Beast mentioned the ahodine ah knew it was Jean... she was the only one who would feed Ororo. She hadn't been out on a date in a long time, ah guess she was tryin' to not get so close to anybody since she was plannin' on leavin'. I neva wanted it tah go this far. I'm sorry Ororo," she said as she began to sob out loud and put her forehead on her knees as tears flowed uncontrollably.  
  
"Rogue" Ororo said, right before a cough, "Do not blame yourself for my current state. This was not your intent and definitely not your fault. Please, come give me a hug." Rogue slowly rose to her feet, with a slight smile on her face. Ororo always provided the right comfort. Ororo, who was now sitting on the table, and still weakened, wrapped her arms around Rogue and hugged her tight. "Your intentions were not bad, Rogue. I appreciate you for wanting me to stay." The two parted after a long hug.  
  
Xavier was sitting in his wheelchair, his hands folded as he thought deeply. This was normally his position when was off thinking in depth. "Thank you, Ororo," Rogue said as she walked back to Hank's side and put her gloved hands on his shoulders.  
  
Sierra was in Darè's arms as he wrapped one arm around her waste and she leaned against his body as he leaned against the wall. Both of their heads turned as the door SWISHED open and a blonde-haired teenager ran pass them.  
  
"Paige, what are you doing in here?!" Xavier said as he lifted his head suddenly to the see the mutant running into the room.  
  
"Hush!" she said, not realizing who she was speaking to. This former Generation X student was now at home in the Xavier Institute. Her full name was Paige Guthrie, but whenever on the battlefield she was known as Husk. Her abilities were simple and her name was applied well. She could 'husk' her body into any type of material she wanted it to be, making her quite unpredictable. She ran to the small TV of the Medical Laboratory and quickly changed the channel to a news bulletin. She stepped back as she reached the channel and turned up the volume.  
  
The eyes in the room, without a word, watched the news reporter:  
  
"This is a special news update. As reported earlier there was an odd suicide in the Westchester, NY area at a small motel. The man has been identified as being a mutant. He has been identified as Scott Summers and we are searching for his relatives. If you know this man, you can call the number on your screen and take the body. There was also a letter addressed to a woman named Ororo, but no last name was written. Please call the number on your screen if you know this man and can claim the body. That is all for now."  
  
A picture of Scott was on the screen. It was an older picture he must have took with him. There was his brown hair and those ruby shades that he had become accustomed to. Who would have ever thought this would happen to him? He was the most apt to succeed: the prep boy, the favorite of students, the first X-Man.  
  
"Paige, accompany me to my office. We need to discuss your cutting of class and call the number to get the letter and the body."  
  
"But Sierra and Darè is here," she said with her southern tongue and grammar, just as deep as Rogue's.  
  
As Paige and Xavier left the room, everybody's heart was left pounding rapidly. Even Logan, who soon walked out of the room, looked as if he was going to shed some tears.  
  
"Hank?" Rogue questioned as he suddenly rose from his seat and began to look through some microscope slides.  
  
"I've already lost two of my family members. I'm not going to lose Ororo!" he once again looked into the microscope, praying that the worst wouldn't happen.  
  
Footnote: Only one question left now. Will Ororo live? I'm wondering if I should leave the story here and let everyone come up with their own ending... or should I finish. 


	11. [11]!

Ororo's Deathbed  
  
Author's Notes: You've convinced me. I will finish off the story here and now. As mentioned before, Sunday is a busy day for me, and Saturday nights require going to sleep on time. So, sorry it took so long, but here it is.  
  
...Continued  
  
Ororo had been taken out of the medical laboratory. Hank was running around in every direction looking for the correct antibiotic and repeatedly going through every step in the Scientific Method, all in vain. The furry-faced mutant continued to jump from roof to ceiling, searching for an answer.  
  
"Mr. McCoy," Darè said from a corner in the room, testing a number of different herbs he had been working on and doing analysis on. "Eh yo! Mr. McCoy!" he yelled again after he noticed Hank didn't hear him. "Hank!" he exclaimed, immediately grabbing Beast's attention, "Can you calm down? I mean, I'm tryin' to look at this stuff but you jumpin' wildin' out over there."  
  
"Get out!" Hank roared with sharp teeth as he lunged at Darè. The young, teenage mutant quickly ran out of the medical lab and into the hall.  
  
"Geez," Darè mumbled as he walked towards the elevator with his hands in his pocket. He had never seen Hank act so out-of-control. He was not like the Hank that would think, test, hypothesize, etc.; this new image of Hank was one that matched his outer countenance. The beast on the outside had become the Beast on the inside.  
  
But soon his thoughts changed as the elevator opened and he walked on board. Some of his classmates were already on, sweating with tattered uniforms. "Training day?" he asks, already knowing the answers.  
  
The other students just moaned and groaned, and when reaching the first floor they shoved Darè off. "Just jealous 'cause I got to cut class," he chuckles as the elevator door closes. He began to walk towards the Foyer so he could go up the Grand Staircase, but was stopped when he saw Rogue coming in the front door. "Did'ja get the letter?" he asks her.  
  
"Yeah," she says with sad green eyes, "And it ain't pretty." She floats in the air and begins a slow, eased hover towards the staircase. "Ah really don't wunna be the one to give it to Ororo."  
  
"I'll give it to her," he says, holding out his hand for the letter, "I'm goin' up anyway."  
  
"Thanks Darè," Rogue says as she hands the letter over, reluctantly at first, with gloved hands. "Ah'm gonna go see the Professor for a minute."  
  
He begins to walk up the staircase, extending his long legs over two steps and holding on to the exquisite railing. He couldn't help but to the think about Scott's stupidity and ignorance when it came down to the realistic things of life. He had been such a commanding leader on the battlefield, full with pride of success. But battling against other mutants and large robots was unrealistic to most of the world. Learning of betrayal between two friends was realistic. When it came down to something as honest and outspoken as the situation of Jean's hatred for Ororo, he was no longer the strong leader. He was a cowardly chicken who was unable to face the problem head on. Whatever was happening in Scott's head when he found out about Jean's friendly façade? Hopefully it was all going to be revealed in the letter he had left for Ororo.  
  
Darè reached the top of the staircase and walked towards the Adults Dorm, a section that had only been added onto the mansion after everyone started piling inside and new students started to arrive daily. "Hm hm hm," he hummed as he walked down the hall and entered the large pocket doors that were always opened. It connected this new addition to the original part of the mansion. "Eh, Sierra," he said as he stopped humming and approached the Latina. "You know where Ms. Munroe be?"  
  
"Yeah, she's in this room," she said, with a rich Latin accent in her voice, and moved from the doorway. "Why?"  
  
"Scott's letter is here," he said as he began to walk into the room.  
  
He was stopped by her hand, which pulled back at his arm gently. "I thought Rogue was supposed to be getting it."  
  
"She was, but she actin' crazy and cryin' and stuff," he said as he began to walk in again.  
  
Once again, he was stopped by her hand, which pulled him back outside the doorway. Her hazel eyes looked into his dark, brown irises, "We're still meeting on the balcony tonight, right?" she asked.  
  
"Yeah," he said, and finally entered into the dimly lit room. His boots made thuds against the hardwood floor until he stepped onto the large rug, which covered most of the room. "Ms. Munroe?" he said, looking towards a body shape on the bed.  
  
"Darè?" she said weakly, as she slowly lifted her head.  
  
"It's me," he said as he approached the bed, "Rogue just gave-" But he was cut off by a masculine groan that came from the bathroom. He looked to see Remy exiting the bathroom and noticed the two were perhaps conversing before he entered into the room. "Should I leave?" Darè questioned as he slowly began to exit the room.  
  
"No," Ororo said, "Remy was going to leave," a cough interrupted her words, "And return later. Please sit, Darè."  
  
Remy walked over to Ororo's bed and whispered something into her ear that Darè could not hear. If it were up to him, he wouldn't want to hear. It was probably another phrase to encourage her that she would survive the catastrophe and outlive the obstacles. He, for one, did not have that much faith in good fortune or life. Believing that death would eventually come and take those who were ill was the easiest thing for him. It's so easy to hope and believe in something that is seen everyday instead of looking and having greater expectations for the unseen miracles of life.  
  
Before Remy departed for the door he rested a kiss on Ororo's head and closed the door behind him. "Rogue left the letter from Scott wit' me," he said in somewhat of a solemn voice. Darè let his arm extend over the bed with the letter in his hand.  
  
"Please," Ororo said, "Sit and read it to me. I neither have the strength nor the courage to read the letter."  
  
"Uh, sure," he said as he bouncily walked over to a chair that was positioned at the head of the bed. Ororo was laying flat on her back, face pointed to the ceiling and her white, silvery hair spread across the pillow that her head rested on. She was under a large comforter and an automatic sprayer, which was plugged into the wall, sprayed the bedroom with Lysol. "Can I turn on anotha light?" he finally asked after fiddling with the letter and trying to read it under the terrible lighting in the room.  
  
"If you would like," Ororo answered. Darè sent his hand behind his head and turned on the lamp that was rested on a nightstand.  
  
"Let's see," he said as he unfolded the letter fully and was ready to start when yet another interruption occurred.  
  
"Read the letter correctly, Darè," she said with a smile and somewhat of a joke. It was unlike her to either joke or smile. He had always been one to paraphrase while he read and use ebonic terms in place of sophisticated terms, which he found necessary to decipher.  
  
"Okay," he said with a slight laugh and looked to Ororo. It had been the first time he saw her with the lights on and as far along the sickness as she was. Now her skin was no longer caramel brown, it was a rusty color with small hives popping up everywhere. He would catch her frequently scratching the back of her hands and her eyes never seemed to lose the white, fogginess which had been resting in them for a few hours now. He put the letter into the light and began to read immediately:  
  
'Dear Ororo, I apologize for being such a jerk to you and for not being a true friend. Now you have another betrayer to add to your list, another Benedict Arnold to convict mankind with. By the time anybody reads this letter I won't be alive. I just can't live with the constant guilt that plagues me. Every time I think about it I seem to feel even more less than human. It's an odd phrase: less than human. It's amazing how stupid I was. I mean, I'm a mutant, the next step in life, and yet look at how inhumane I was.  
  
I knew Jean didn't like you when you first came. The way you heart-fully placed you hands on my shoulders that first crowded time in the Blackbird when you joined and helped us save the original X-Men. She might have had a smile on her face and years of friendship planned, but it was all a facsimile she was using to hide the spite. And hatred normally will get the best of us if we let it sit there, like a bucket of water in the heat for days and weeks in the summertime. One day it's a thought and the next it's a home and vat of mosquitoes.  
  
I'm just rambling now, trying to find a good idea to not take my life here and now. I know that you'll forgive me. You have too much compassion not to forgive me. But I can't forgive myself. And I can't live with the doubt and guilt forever.  
  
I know I must have made things worse for you by leaving. I mean; I know it must have been a lot of stress on your body, leading the team on short notice and dealing with the ever-growing virus. Sorry, again. Once more, I wasn't thinking. Actually, I was thinking. I was constantly thinking about Jean. I wasn't thinking about the consequences that would harm you. I was hoping that Jean would love me enough to see that I left, and that she shouldn't go through with her hateful plans. I told her that I wouldn't come back until she promised me that she wouldn't do anything to you.  
  
One thing is for sure: she showed me. I have absolutely no love left inside of me for Jean, Rogue, or myself. It's coming to that point where I am beginning to realize that this type of thing isn't supposed to happen to someone as compassionate as you. I can't help but to think back to the time you defeated me for leadership of the X-Men. I can laugh at it now, but back then I was angry. The embarrassment of being beat by you when you didn't have your powers and I had my own was unbelievable. But even after that, you never stopped showing compassion.  
  
I can't believe this. I'm actually crying here. I can't take it anymore. I won't be seeing you in heaven, Ororo. I don't deserve heaven. After all, suicide is a no-way-out hell gateway. So this is goodbye, my Beautiful Windrider. I hope you stay strong and live through this. I know I can't live through it any longer.  
  
With sincerest regrets, Scott Summers'  
  
Darè gently folded up the letter and looked to Ororo who didn't move anything except for a frequent blink in her eyes. Then finally, when he turned off the light, and the room went back to it's dimness, she spoke. "Thank you, Darè. If you see Logan, can you ask him to come see me?" she asked, sounding as if she was about to cry.  
  
"Sure, Ms. Munroe," he said, also feeling the suffocating emotion coming from the letter and Ororo. He bent down over the bed and gave her a hug. She gently returned it. He placed the letter on the coffee table and walked out of the room.  
  
"How was she?" Sierra asked, as she looked up from the hallway floor. She was sitting across from the door and when Darè stepped out she had looked up to meet his eyes and facial expression. When she noticed the suppressed look on his face she said no more. Lifting her hand into the air, he walked over to her and helped her to stand.  
  
"Scott basically said he was sorry and that he was sending himself to hell," he said, as she finally stood up straight in her high-heeled boots.  
  
"Oh my goodness," she said, sending a hand to her mouth, surprised and appalled.  
  
He took her hand in his own and the two began walking down the hall, staying the Adult Dorm area. "I really don't feel like talking right now," she said as they walked down the quiet hall. It was an unusual thing to find a quiet place in the Institute at any time of the day except in the twilight hours where night met morning.  
  
"I know," he said, understanding exactly how she felt. He felt the same way. Their entire lives had become overwhelmed with Ororo's well being and the adult problems that seemed so common among teenagers in smaller forms.  
  
They made their way to the new grandeur balcony, which had been added with the adult sleeping area. "Darè, I'm glad I have you with me right here," she said as she cuddled herself into his arms when they finally reached the balcony. He was leaning against the brick wall, looking over the side of the balcony. This was probably the quietest part of the mansion since the attic's untimely destruction by Ororo.  
  
"I needed you here with me too," he said, knowing what she meant in essence but having the fear to say so. She turned to look at him with a slight smile on her face and he responded the only way he knew how to: laying a long kiss on her lips, parting with closed eyes and sweaty palms from the heat of the summer evening. It didn't end there, once again, their lips met, but not as long this time.  
  
Interruption came from the groggy voice of a grumpy Wolverine, "What are you kids doin' here? Get back to yer part of the mansion!" he said with anger.  
  
"Oh yeah, Ms. Munroe wanted to see you," Darè said, ignoring what Logan said as he looked up to the stressed man. For a man that healed so quickly and was able to hide his age, it was strange to see the wrinkles of stress becoming deeper and visible.  
  
"Yeah," he said with a distant gaze in his eyes, "Thanks kid." He began to walk down the hall, forgetting the two teenagers on the balcony and with his mind solely on Ororo. He didn't notice how fast he was walking until he reached Ororo's door in record time.  
  
"Logan?" she asked as she heard the door open.  
  
"Yeah it's me darlin'," he said as he closed the door behind him and walked through the small foyer of the bedroom. Making his way towards the bed, he noticed a small rain cloud over Ororo's head, which would display lightning often and small blurs of thunder. " 'Ro, you okay?" he asked.  
  
"Yes, I am fine Logan. Please, seat yourself on the bed," she asked him, coughing frequently in between her words. Her voice was scratchy and sounded as if it was dying. When he finally sat on the bed, she began speaking, not giving him the room or time to say anything. "Logan, I would like to thank you for you friendship through these long and rough times of being an X-Man. It started off very simply. I joined, searching for the true purpose of my mutant abilities. Unlike many of the others, you and I had already mastered our powers before joining Xavier. I suppose we joined because we were searching for answers. I hope you found your answers," she said with a weak smile.  
  
"What are you talkin' about, 'Ro? You really don't think you're gonna die, do you? Cause Hank is down there moltin' his hair out gettin' some medicine ready for ya."  
  
The door opened again before Ororo could respond. "Thank you for your time Logan," she said as she noticed Remy standing there. "I shall never forget our friendship and the loving times we have spent together."  
  
Logan begins to cry uncontrollably as his silhouette of being the tough X- Man shows his truly babyish nature. He was still a child on the inside but didn't like to let it show. He would have tried to find an excuse for his tears with the Cajun standing right there in front of them, but he didn't. He simply took Ororo's hand and kissed it gently, concealing his fangs under his lips. "I love you 'Ro," he said before standing up and walking out of the room.  
  
"Remy," Ororo said with another cough. He was cautious to approach her with the small thundering cloud that hovered over her head. If a lightning bolt were to lose control, he would be struck. But his fear was soon relieved as she called to him again, "Remy, please, come."  
  
He moved across the room and sat on the bed, his brown trench coat following him the entire way and ending up under his bottom. "Stormy, you need to stop doing this. You talkin' to everybody like you about to die. Xavier and Hank not gonna let you die," he says with gentle eyes.  
  
"Remy," she says, finding the strength to lift her body to a sitting position, "I have been wondering and thinking, hoping and praying to find out who I really loved. Although I love everyone I know, I have been searching for that one person who would receive the bulk of my affection. For so long I have battled with the loss of Forge and Arkon. Now, it has come down to finally choosing. Both you and Logan have showed me undeniable care and affection, but Remy I love you."  
  
"I love you, too," he says, turning around with wide, red eyes and taking Ororo in his arms. "And I'm going to love you forever." He closed his eyes in the dim room, and she did the same as their warm lips met for a soft kiss. Their hearts beat with an undeniable speed, as they finally were honest with themselves.  
  
Remy began to part as he felt a weakness in Ororo's kiss. Still in his arms, her eyes were closed and her lips stationary. "Stormy?" he said, looking at her. He shook her and put his ear to her chest to check a heartbeat. "Stormy?" he continued to with perseverance. "Ororo!" 


End file.
